From Marine to Autobot
by HK74
Summary: M for strong language. AU, personal characters. Story starts in 2013, starting exactly 24 hours before the actions of the first episode of the series. Will not follow Prime universe canon completely. Will be a love story in later chapters, between one of the new team and the main character. OC is my characters. Ch 9 up.
1. Beginnings

Somewhere in Afghanistan, 0900 hours. Al Qaeda territory.

My name is Corporal Mitchel "Legion" Daniels, United States Marine Corps. Age 19. I've been here for little more than a week. Today is June 6, 2013. I hold the position of the automatic rifleman in my squad. Today is the day that the world as I knew it changed forever. This is my story.

"CONTACT!" I heard Sergeant Jackson yell, all of us hitting the dirt and opening fire on a pair of enemy soldiers running for cover, killing them both.

We came under heavy fire, the enemy having set up an ambush. A enemy PKM machine gun had opened fire, as well as a squad of AQ with AK-47s and some old bolt action rifles. 'Mosin Nagants' I thought, remembering my World War 2 history well.

Private First Class Anderson was hit within seconds as we struggled to find cover. The enemy had the high ground and had just killed one of my brothers in arms. 'What am I going to tell his wife?' I thought, my blood boiling in my veins. I had gone through bootcamp with Anderson. He was a good man who didn't know what he was getting into.

Being 19 I suppose I didn't either. I had the image of the Twin Towers burned into my mind though. I had lost my parents on that day, September 11, 2001. A day that will also live in infamy. These bastards were responsible for taking my happiness, for taking my life from me and turning into a fucked up existence of hatred and resentment. I hated the bastards who attacked us, I resented the foster family I ended up with, I resented the fact that my country wasn't able to figure out exactly where to strike to take the head of the snake, and I wanted revenge.

I returned fire with my M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, the machine gun suppressing the AK and rifle fire, the PKM still trying to suppress and pin down my squad as I finally managed to shoot and kill the gunner. I continued to suppress the enemy positons, making sure to get shots at the machine gun so that none of the bastards would get a chance to use it on us.

Sergeant Jackson advanced, taking Private Ramirez and Lance Corporal Petrenko with him to take out the enemy that was suppressed. I got up from my position and advanced, continuing my suppression fire as I moved. I saw the Sergeant get hit by sniper fire, dead before he hit the ground.

"RAMIREZ, GET A GRENADE ON THAT CLIFF!" I yelled out, knowing the sniper was nearby by the way the sergeant fell. I heard an explosion and saw a body come down behind a low wall where the enemy squad was pinned down. My magazine ran dry and I pulled a grenade that had the ring around a hook on my vest with my left hand and chucked it, taking out three of the eight enemy troops.

I drew my Beretta M9 and continued firing as they appeared over the walls, killing two more. 'Three left.' I thought. "GET TO COVER!" I shouted as I dived to a low wall off to my right and reloaded my M9 before reloading my SAW. I saw Ramirez and Petrenko at a low wall opposite of me, the enemy focusing their fire on their position. I ejected a shell to make sure I had a bullet in the chamber before I opened up on the enemy once more. I hit two of them, the remaining one just managing to get his head down before I could kill him too.

Ramirez launched a grenade from his M203 grenade launcher mounted underneath the barrel of his M16 into the wall where the enemy was hiding, hitting dead on target. We all took a moment to reload all of our armaments before we even thought to move to get our fallen comrades' dog tags. "Ramirez, you get Anderson, Petrenko, you carry Johnson. We aren't leaving them here for these bastards to drag off. I want to make sure their families actually have a body to bury, not just a tag."

Sergeant Frankie Jackson was my foster brother, and he was like a father figure to me. The higher-ups didn't know that and I was glad to have been assigned to his squad. Up until now. I had to remain alert. I wouldn't let my brothers die here, not any more of them. I tried not to think of how Frankie would have been done with his tour of duty tomorrow.

I found us higher ground and a much more defendable position, not able to return due to the enemy surely having set up an ambush for us on a return course to relay the situation to our commanding officer. We waited for what seemed like hours when I heard a footstep outside of a foxhole we had dug, all of us popping up and firing, taking down an AQ grunt who wanted to recon the high ground. I heard the most God-awful noise I could have ever heard. The sound of more than a hundred AQ shouting, what they said I don't know. I don't want to know.

"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" I shouted, the marines coming to my side as AQ forces came running up the hill, trying to over-run us. We opened up with all we had. I thought they would never stop coming. The onslaught was endless, having already killed at least fifty on my own, not that I was keeping count. "Petrenko! Get your ass back to base! We're running low on ammo and I'd rather have reinforcements sooner than later!"

"Aye sir!" He shouted, climbing out of the foxhole and sprinting in the direction we had originally come from when we were ambushed on the road.

"Last mag!" Ramirez shouted.

"Take more off of Jackson and Anderson!"

"I already did!"

"Fuck! Check my pack, I grabbed a few extra magazines!"

I could feel the shift in weight from little to almost nothing in the pack as he grabbed what magazines I had for an M16 out of the rucksack, which emptied it completely of ammunition, setting them out next to him before returning to firing. He had already fired all the M203 grenades we had by this point. I continued firing until I ran out of ammunition. "Pick your targets, I'm out!" I tossed my SAW to the side, grabbing Jackson's M16. I kept firing into the onslaught when Ramirez fell into the middle of the large foxhole we had dug, shot in the head. I continued my defense as I grabbed his M9 out of his holster, tossing the M16 off to the side when it ran empty. Ramirez had just finished the last of the M16 magazines, so I drew my M9 and used the two handguns I had to keep killing off the AQ grunts.

I felt a pain in my ribcage like I had never felt before. Another in my left arm, causing me to drop one of the M9s. I was shot twice, then I was hit in the left shoulder, and I fell into the middle and saw a burning object in the sky, seeming to head to my position. 'That IS heading to my position! A missile?! How'd AQ get a missile? And why would they waste it on a single Marine?!' I thought, shooting a grunt who tried to jump into the foxhole to finish me off. I got up and went back to my position and saw them turning tail. "Fucking cowards! Beaten by a man with one good arm?!" I looked down and got Ramirez's tags. I couldn't move him, and I could barely get out of the foxhole myself. I got out and was heading towards the base when the object, whatever it was, hit very close to me. I was thrown to the ground by the sheer force of the landing, and was knocked out.

Little did I know, I wasn't the only one alive within 30 feet. The last thing I recall seeing is a red face-like symbol on the Unidentified Hellaciously Large Falling Object, and something big getting out of it.

 **Author's note: Sorry for the short chapter, needed something to get started with. I intend to have the second chapter be plenty longer than this one and have it actually get into the Transformers world fully.**


	2. Introductions

**Author's Note: Alright, second chapter up within a week of the first. Take note this is going to be a little slow and will likely not match much of the episode's plot, since I can't remember most of it and don't want to stick to the plot of the series, instead spinning it off on my own plot. That being said, yes there will be missions that were in the series, like the upcoming chapter 3 that will skip ahead several episodes in the series. Also note that there are several personally-made characters with less creative names than I liked, but my mind isn't very creative on names, so I try my best. Read & Review. **

I came to, everything blurry as I looked around. I blinked a couple times and recognized I was in what could only be a military facility of some kind. 'But this looks... American!' I thought, confused.

"Eh... Ratchet, Patchkit... the kid's waking up..." a voice, more beautiful than I ever heard, said.

"Kid...? I thought I stopped getting called that over a year ago..." I remarked, coughing afterwards.

"Easy there, human. Your wounds aren't entirely healed, and I'm afraid you'll need a human doctor to fix you up." A deep voice said.

"Well, if he had a protective shell..." Another voice said.

"Damn it, I was wearing bulletproof armor. It doesn't always protect your sides, and it never protects your arm or your shoulder... it's the best we have at the moment... Who are you people?!"

A large red and blue machine stepped to my side and looked down at me.

"Er... **What** are you?"

"I am Optimus Prime. Leader of a group of sentient techno-organisms from the planet Cybertron.

I laughed. "So PTSD causes hallucinations of aliens."

A pair of the machines entered my field of vision, a red and white colored one and a blue colored one, the red and white one speaking first, and I recognized him as the one who made the comment about the shell. "I'm Ratchet, the team's primary medic. The 'bot with the deep voice you heard is Patchkit here. I assure you that this is no hallucination, but what is this... PTSD?"

"You're kidding me, right? I can tell you've been through some battles... flashbacks to battles... you actively see them, sometimes the same ones over and over, reliving the horrors of the battle..." My eyes widened, seeing that damned horde of AQ, back in Afghanistan. "PETRENKO! GET BACK TO BASE!" I shouted, being shaken from the flashback somehow. I looked up and saw a blue and silver colored... Autobot, was it? 'She's shorter than the others...' I jumped when I realized what I had thought. It was, in fact, a female variant of the machines. She had a hand, about half the size of the other machines', on my shoulder.

"You alright?" She asked.

'So she's the one with the voice...' I thought. "I... should be fine, ma'am... just before I was brought here I was..." I looked away. "Let's just say me and one other man... I hope... are the only survivors..."

"So I saw. That many against you though... five against-"

"Three..."

"But there were three bodies, we saw one heading away with armor matching yours, and then there was you."

"One was killed in the fight... two were killed in an ambush just before that firefight..."

"Wouldn't it have been safer to surren-"

"If you finish that sentence, I swear that when I'm able to get up I'll put a rocket through your chest. Surrender was NOT an option, not with terrorists!"

"I... apologize. I'm Arcee, by the way."

I just nodded. Over the course of the next few hours I met the rest of their team. A 'femme' by the name of Firewall, who looked a lot like Arcee, the biggest difference was that she had what looks like tracks instead of wheels on her frame. Bulkhead, a larger bot than Optimus, at least in width. A scout I couldn't understand named Bumblebee, who only spoke in what I could only describe as beeps. A mech by the name of Killshot, and a charismatic red 'Bot by the name of Cliffjumper. Optimus explained the situation as for why they were here and what their objective was.

"So what's your name, kid?" Arcee asked.

"I stopped being a kid about two years ago, thanks. Corporal Mitchel Daniels."

She nodded and walked off. Firewall did too. I heard Arcee mumble "Sis, don't even act like you don't like him."

"Do what?!" I demanded.

"Scrap... his hearing's better than I thought."

I ended up having to stay there on that bed for the longest time before I heard Arcee call in on the Comm about 10:00 the following morning.

"Cliffjumper's in trouble."

"I'm calling everyone back, we're sending them his way. Burn rubber to get to him."

"I'm going too. I'm itching for a fight, I don't care who it is, if they want to attack people with the same goal as me, then I'm fighting beside you"

"No, you're not even-"

"Damnit, it's easier for a man to fire a rocket launcher with one arm than to put his pants on, I'm helping them!"

"Negative, Mitchel! You don't even know what you'll be going up against, and for this you'll need to be at more than 100% to fight." Arcee said over the comm. I was already on my feet, heading out the door when that stopped me.

"I'm a marine. This is what I'm trained for."

"No, you're trained for killing other humans, NOT Cybertronians!"

"You don't mean... it's **them**?" Ratchet asked.

"It is."

"Who?!"

"The Decepticons..."

"Friends of yours, I take it?"

"Sadly."

"I've still got some grenades... I think..." I looked on my vest and saw all my munitions that I had left from Afghanistan were gone. "Dammit..."

"Get back on the berth. You need to rest, seeing as how you already look like you could fall over at any moment."

I grunted and limped back to the bed, lying back. I looked at my arm, just now noticing that the sleeve was torn off when they tried to treat my wound.

"Seeing as how I can only wait for the others to get back while I work on getting the groundbridge fixed, what's the image on your arm?" Ratchet asked.

I looked down at the tattoo I got shortly after being deployed. A skull with 'Semper Fi' impressioned on the forehead, crossed M16s behind it.

"... Marine motto." I said simply. It meant more to me than just that, but the 'Bots wouldn't understand.

"Ah."

"These... Decepticons... I have questions about them."

"Shoot. Just... not the med bay equipment."

"How did they get started? What did they do?"

"That... is a story for another time. But they made our home planet of Cybertron incapable of sustaining life."

"They what?"

"The years of war ravaged the planet to a point it was not capable of sustaining any life."

"Now I get it... Now I see why you were hoping it wasn't them."

"Yes... 'hoping' seems to be the key word. Now get some rest. If you're so eager to see some action against them, then I won't stop you when you're healed. But know this, your chances of dying are even higher fighting Decepticons than when you were holding your own a day ago."

"Alright." I finally felt a little more relaxed, as did the 'Bot from what I could tell, still tense due to news of Decepticons but I could tell he felt more at ease around me after the chat we had. I drifted asleep, images of what happened in Afghanistan haunting my dreams.

4 hours later

"What do you mean his life signs have disappeared?!" Arcee yelled, stirring me from my hellish sleep.

"I mean that Cliffjumper... his spark has been extinguished." Ratchet replied.

I was in the middle of sitting up when I heard that and I froze. "I take it that means he's dead?"

"Unfortunately, ye-"

"Let's find those bastards. Wounds or no wounds, as of now I'm at a hundred percent."

"No, you aren't." Arcee growled at me.

"Look here, Miss Giant Robot, you're on my home planet, I think I should be allowed to help take these fuckers down, don't you?"

Optimus looked between the two of us, and weighing the pros and cons of the situation, he spoke. "Mitchel is right. He has the means to do it, if we train him how to fight Cybertronians. However, with human weapons he would be little more than a distraction for any Decepticon forces."

"You don't know how effective we humans are at blowing stuff up." Bulkhead smirked, apparently I was more like him than he originally thought.

"But how are we going to figure out where they went?" Firewall asked

"With them being on a ship, all we can do is- wait, Arcee, where are you going?"

"I'm going back on patrol, sitting here won't avenge Cliff."

"But-"

"Let her go." I said.

"You don't even-"

"I said let her go. She lost a brother in arms that she was close to. She needs time." I said, true for both her and myself.

"I hope you know what you're saying." Ratchet said as Arcee sped off.

"I do... I've been there just a day ago..." I mumbled.

I got up off of the medical bed and walked up to Optimus. "When do we get started on training?"

"Soon enough."

I grunted when I pulled a muscle while trying to move my left arm. "Damn... that hurt."

"Get back on the bed, Mitchel. You're healing at an incredibly fast rate for a human. Your limp is gone, and I figure by another two days you'll be fully healed and ready to go.

"Dammit... I'm getting stir-crazy here, Ratchet."

"I noticed."

"Ratchet, I think I'll take Mitchel out for a ride." Firewall said.

"Optimus?"

"I think it will be fine for Firewall to take Mitchel on a drive, old friend."

The medic bot sighed in defeat as Firewall transformed. I was shocked as I stared at an Abrams tank.

"You going to gawk or are you going to get in?" She asked, opening the commander's hatch. I headed over and climbed onto and then into the 'Bot. We rolled out of the base and into... 'Well... a desert. I'm sick of deserts.' I thought.

"Where are we, exactly?"

"I believe you call a massive area that comprises this location 'Nevada'"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hit the brakes!"

As Firewall slowed to a stop, I was shocked far beyond my comprehension.

"How did I get back in the 'States?"

"Groundbridge."

"But Ratchet was-"

"Bulkhead broke it."

"Oh..."

"Well... that's not really fair... Technically both me and Bulkhead broke it..."

"Just... let's get going. I need to get away from that missile silo for a bit..."

"Okay, Mitchel."

I sighed, a memory flashing through my head.

"I'm sorry Zoey..." I mumbled.

"Zoey? Who's Zoey?"

"... Doesn't matter anymore... let's just keep going."

Memory

"NO! STOP IT! DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!" Zoey screamed as I was being pummeled by a group of punks in New York. The leader of the group flashed a smile, walking over to her.

"You and me... we're going to have some fun..."

My blood boiled. "You touch her and I will gut you like a fish!"

He laughed and grabbed her arm, pulling a knife. I grabbed one of my three attackers' ankles and pulled him down, grabbing him by the shoulders and rolling so he took the next hit from the other two. I punched the man's throat and killed him before I kicked one of the remaining two in the groin and slammed his head into the third's stomach. I grabbed a brick that was nearby and hit one over the head with it then kicked the other one in the temple, knocking one out and killing the other. I heard Zoey scream and I looked over and saw the group's leader pulling his knife out of her.

"No..."

"You're next, fuckwit."

"You just fucked yourself beyond any chance you **ever** had of surviving this." I put my boot on the unconscious man's neck and stomped, killing him. The group's leader charged me and tried to stab me. I grabbed his arm, twisted the blade away from me, letting it go past me as I twisted the blade out of his hand and punched him, knocking him backwards as I picked up his knife and charged, stabbing him just above the waistline, blade pointed upwards.

"I warned you. You killing her guaranteed you getting this." I said, ripping the blade upwards until I hit bone and I ripped the blade out of him and stabbed him in the shoulder with it, leaving the blade there as he died in agony.

I pulled a small box out of my pocket, looking at it and then to Zoey's lifeless body. I closed her eyelids, putting the box back in my pocket and walking off, my tears having long since been spent.

Present

I sighed, closing my eyes. "Every time..." I mumbled, shaking my head.

Firewall slowed to a stop. "Spill it."

"You don't want to know..."

"I do. If it's disturbing you that much, I want to help if I can..."

"You can't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know, damnit, unless you can bring someone back to life!"

"What happened?"

"My girlfriend was murdered in front of me the day I was going to propose to her. And all of my girlfriends before her were killed as well."

"I... I'm sorry..."

"Don't mention it... ever... I don't want to talk about it ever again..."

"I understand..."

"Let's head back to base... I think I'm good for today..."

"Alright... I'm sorry, Mitchel..."

"Look... It's ok... just don't bring it up again... alright?"

"Okay."

As we returned to base, we saw 'Bee burning rubber towards a town.

"I wonder where he's going..." I mumbled.

"Same here..."

"Hey, actually, stop here... I want to talk for a minute about what Arcee said to you when I first woke up here..."

"Um... Y-you heard that?"

"Just stop, I'll talk to you face to face."

She stopped and I climbed out, walking in front of her as she transformed and I looked up at her.

"What did she mean when she said not to hide the fact that you like me?"

"I-I um..."

I raised an eyebrow, getting suspicious that she's... interested.

"I... don't want to talk about it right now... maybe later...?"

I nodded, within walking distance of the entrance, so I started walking, not wanting to take advantage of the femme being able to turn into a vehicle.

'He... didn't use me to get the rest of the way back?' Firewall thought, surprised. 'He... really is the kind of guy I thought he was.' She smiled warmly, heading towards the base.

About thirty minutes after we got back, Arcee and 'Bee came back, and something shocked me. There were three civilians with them. 'Kids?! What the fuck?!' I thought.

Optimus looked at the two, then at the three kids.

"We took the initiative of not letting the witnesses go without protection." Arcee said.

"Witnesses of what, exactly?" I asked.

"Seeing us." the femme said, her and 'Bee having returned to their normal form.

"Uh-huh. They're civilians."

"They're also in danger of being killed by the Cons now."

I grumbled, going off to the med bay and lying down on the bed while all the introductions were handled.

 **Author's note: Chapter 2 up within 24 hours of chapter 1's posting! Due to some consideration of a review I received, I have decided to reboot the story and write at least all the way through the first five episodes. Anyway, I need some reviews. I know this has been a crap-tacular chapter but he was wounded in battle three times, so he actually shouldn't have even been able to walk normal in this chapter if he was limping from the shot to his side. Revs, please.**


	3. On the Trail of Something

**Author's note: A thanks to my guest friend who made the recommendation to restart. Looking back at this, it was very poor with what I had done. I was a bit overeager to get into the main part that I skipped over way too much, and a little bit of Killshot's past is exposed in this chapter. Also, in regards to the cursing around Raf, that's actually going to be a bit of a problem due to the conflict that there is in this chapter. Rest assured though, I have a way to get it handled. Also, due to some dialogues where 'Bulkhead said, Jack said, I said, Optimus said' gets too out of hand, I'm going to put the names of those that spoke next to the quote.**

"Hey... your name's Mitchel, right?" I heard from what had to be the oldest of the group.

"Yeah, whatcha need?"

"My name's Jack... the crazy one over there's Miko, and the one running around with Bumblebee at the moment is Raf."

"Okay, so whatcha need?" I asked a little aggravated.

"I-I didn't mean to agitate you, sir, I-" I jumped.

"How old are you, kid?"

"16, sir." I jumped when he called me sir again.

"19, so knock the sir crap off, alright? I'm only three years older than you." I said, sitting up and looking at him.

It was like I was looking at a younger Frankie.

"Son of a..."

"What's wrong, Mitch? I-I can call you Mitch, right?"

"Yeah... you can... you just... remind me of someone... that died not that long ago..."

"Oh... S-sorry..."

"It's okay, you just... remind me of my brother... Foster brother, but still..."

"I don't mean to pry but... how'd he..."

"Sniper in Afghanistan."

"Oh man... Sorry..."

"Like I said... it's okay..."

"If you two are done with your bromance, we got work to do if you want to join in, Mitch." Firewall said teasingly.

"Absolutely not!" Ratchet said. "He's not even close to being back at a hundred percent! And he has no protective shell, if any of the humans get underfoot they will go.. _**squish**_." He made his point by making a small step.

"So for the time being, Ratchet, we will watch where we step." Optimus said.

"So what, there's not some one-man tank in this missile silo somewhere? I remember reading about an experimental tank that needed only one crewman to operate and could transport a squad of troops inside." Mitch

"That's..." Jack

"Highly classified and nothing any of you civilians can talk about, whether it be what I said or if you ever see the thing." Mitch

"Hmm... good thing I can scan more than once... that sounds a whole lot more useful than my usual alt mode." Firewall

Arcee growled a little. "There you go again, advertising the fact that you can scan a second vehicle, I swear you're doing this at my expense."

An alarm went off. "What's that?" Jack

"*seemingly random beeping*" Bumblebee

"Proximity sensor. Someone's up top." Rafael

"That would be Agent Fowler, our liason to the outside world. It would be best if none of you meet him, except for Mitchel." Optimus

I nodded, the others hiding somewhere. An elevator door on the second level opened.

"Seven wrecks, thirty-four fender-benders, a three-hour traffic jam, and of particular note- Who is that?" He said pointing to me.

"Greaaat. A fu-fragging Ranger. I know that attitude anywhere."

"A jarhead? Great."

"Ground-pounder."

"Leatherneck."

"Dog face."

"I- Damn!"

I smirked.

"Anyway... And of particular note, numerous reports of a speeding motorcycle of unknown make, and a black and yellow custom muscle car. So, anything you care to get off your tin-chest, **Prime**?"

"We have the situation under control, Agent Fowler."

"They're back, aren't they?"

"If you are referring to the Decepticons, I have doubts that they ever left. Your planet is much too valuable."

"Then it's time to wake up the Pentagon." Fowler

"Frag that!" Mitch

"Hear me, Agent Fowler. We are your best, possibly your only defense against the Decepticon threat." Optimus

"Says you." Fowler

"Says him, Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet, and a certain soon-to-be very pissed off Marine, Fowler." Mitch

"Yeah. Speaking of which, fleshie, did anyone get splattered on that freeway? Team Prime knows **when** to use force-" Bulkhead said, ripping a piece of med bay equipment off of med bay. "And how much to use." He said, crushing the piece of equipment.

"BULKHEAD I NEEDED THAT!" Ratchet

"Enough! Military involvement will only result in catastrophe. Perhaps you can condone widespread human casualties, Agent Fowler. I, however, cannot." Optimus

"Then do us both a favor and handle this, Prime. **Under** the Radar." Fowler said, going back inside the elevator. "Or I will."

"Pretty big bearings... for a human." Bulkhead

"I resent that remark, Bulkhead." Mitch

"Agent Fowler is concerned for his world, Bulkhead. As he should be." Optimus

"Never can get along with the Army..." Mitch

"Pathetic human. There are times that he's the reason I wished I never defected to the Autobots." Killshot

"What the- Blasted Earth tech! Cliffjumper's signal just popped back online." Ratchet said

"Who's Cliffjumper?" Miko asked

"How is that possible?" Optimus

"It isn't. Another bug. The system's chocked full of them." Ratchet

"If there's any chance Cliff's alive..." Arcee

"Ratchet, Patchkit, prepare sickbay. We may need it-" Optimus

"Hey! What can we do?" Miko

"Remain with Ratchet and Patchkit." Optimus

"Aww..." Miko

"Ugh..." Ratchet said, opening the groundbridge to the coordinates of the signal.

"Prime, you aren't leaving me here on this one. I can help. Just tell me what to do, I'm itching to give those Cons hell." I said.

"... Ratchet?"

"He's not at a hundred percent capability yet... but he should be able to manage in a firefight. As long as it isn't very heated, that is. He'll need new equipment... And a combat chassis so he can keep pace. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure I want to make the chassis, or if I want Patchkit to make him one. They tend to... absorb the user."

"We don't have time for this, we need to get going!" Mitch

"Mitchel is correct. Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, you are with me. Mitchel, you, Firewall and Killshot will be deployed at a second insertion point." Optimus

I nodded as they headed through the groundbridge that Ratchet had opened up.

"So... I take it he just put me in charge of Bravo team?"

"Bravo team?" Killshot asked.

"Optimus has Alpha team, that would make this Bravo team."

"I suppose so..."

The groundbridge closed and Ratchet put in a new set of coordinates and opened the groundbridge again, the calibrations taking a few minutes. "Here's your insertion point. Get going." I nodded and headed through, the two bots close behind me. I came out of the groundbridge and it felt like my bones were shaking inside me. The two bots came out behind me and we were on the third floor of some complex.

"Energon mine..." Killshot mumbled before ducking under two blue blaster bolts. "SAME SIDE!" he shouted, firing down at some Decepticon 'Vehicons'.

"Watch your left, Firewall!" I shouted, one of the Cons being on the same level as us. She looked over and shot at him, taking five shots at him before she hit him. I could see his optics fade from across the platform, indicating his death. I got to where I could see the battle panning out, there were only a couple Vehicons left, and they went down quickly. I also saw the body of Cliffjumper amongst the energon crystals, cut in half.

There was a laugh as the last Vehicon was shot down, on the same level as me and the two bots. "Prime!" A rather annoying voice said. I looked over and saw a Con holding a bomb, Killshot and Firewall slipping up behind him. "I'd stick around... But I'm-"

"Drop it, Starscream." Firewall said, putting a blaster against the back of his head.

"Oh... Well... This ah... Didn't go as planned."

"You're right. It didn't. Now put down the bomb."

"I'll make you a deal... I put down the bomb, you let me go... Or... I activate this bomb and we all meet the Allspark!" Starscream said.

"You're bluffing." I said, staring him in his optics.

" **Human**..." he said.

"Decepticon."

He jumped off the platform, activating the bomb and throwing it at us, turning into his alt mode and flying out of the mine.

"OPEN IT UP!" I yelled, climbing on top of the bomb, Killshot opening a panel on it. "Red wire, blue wire, yellow wire, black wire... Purple wire?" I said, looking at the wires. "I hope this is the right one... Cut the purple wire."

Killshot cut the purple wire and the countdown on the bomb stopped. "We're good, Optimus. Bomb's disarmed. Let's get as much energon as we can and blow this place sky high." He said.

"Prime, I'm not needed here, am I?" I asked.

"Negative. You can get back to base, Mitchel."

I nodded. "Can you tell Ratchet that I need a groundbridge? I don't have a commlink."

"Ratchet, Mitchel needs a groundbridge." Optimus said into his commlink, a groundbridge opening to my right.

"Thanks." I said before walking through it. I didn't want to say anything while I was out there but I had most definitely pulled something trying to climb onto the bomb.

"How's it going, Mitch?" Miko asked.

"Painfully. I pulled a muscle or something out there. Battle's over, we secured an energon mine... and found Cliffjumper."

"What's his status?" Ratchet asked.

"Dead. I saw the body myself."

"I was afraid so."

Suddenly the bots started coming through the groundbridge with crates of energon. I went to a chair in the corner of the second floor, where Miko, Jack, and Raf wandered over to. After about five returns from each bot they finally closed the groundbridge behind them, Optimus firing a shot through before it closed, an explosion sounding a split second after just as the groundbridge closed.

"Arcee, what did you see?" Optimus asked.

"Not Cliff... At least... not anymore. He was mutated- butchered... like something from those Con experiments during the war..." She said, falling against one of the crates, Bumblebee beeping something.

"I'm fine... Just... dizzy."

"Robots who get dizzy...?" Miko

"Robots with emotions." Rafael

"Robots... who can die." Jack

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, kids." The three of them glared at me. "I'll remember this when you all need a ride from school and I'm the only one able to give you one." I said with a smirk.

"What is this?" Ratchet said, motioning to some purple liquid on the back of Arcee's hand.

"Don't know... Cliff was covered in it- leaking it..."

Ratchet scraped the material off and put it on a slide. "Go take a decontamination bath- now." Arcee nodded and headed out to go take one.

"I thought she didn't look good..." I said.

"What do you mean?" Ratchet asked.

"Good question. One I'm not sure I have an answer for. There was something about the way she moved on the battlefield that said that she saw something that she shouldn't have. Of course, I only saw about half of Cliffjumper when I came back, and he was on the ground floor. He could have been on any floor before we got there. He looked... rotted, from what I saw. Like a zombie."

"Zombie? As in... your undead people thing?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'll leave you to it. Raf, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah sure, what do you need?"

"Look kiddo, I'm going to be blunt. You're the youngest one in here and I don't want the way I talk to affect you. I use a lot of bad language, so you hear anything that I start to say that sounds off, you might want to cover your ears. I'll try to get it under control, but no promises, got it?" He nodded.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now, will all three of the kids here listen up? I'm 19, at most I'm going to put Rafael at 13, at minimum 11, Miko, you look about 15, Jack, you're 16. I'm not that much older than most of you, so the next one of you that calls me 'sir' I'm going to abandon you in that desert out there. Got it?" I got nods all around. "English, speak it people."

"Got it" the three said in unison.

"Good."

"O-Optimus, I hate to bug but... no bars." Jack.

"A security precaution. The silo walls isolate all radio waves."

"Well, if I don't call my mom, like, now, I'm pretty sure the cops will be out looking for me."

"Have you broken a law?"

"A curfew. It's after 10:00 PM."

"I better get home too, or I'll be grounded for a year." Raf

"Earth customs. I hadn't considered... But the issue of your safety remains. Bulkhead, accompany Miko home-" Optimus

"Awesome! My host parents will **freak!** " Miko

"And maintain covert surveillance in vehicle form."Optimus

"Curbside duty, got it." Bulkhead

"Aww..." Miko

"Bumblebee, you'll watch over Raf. Ratchet-" Optimus

"Busy."

"Arcee, you'll accompany Jack."

"Whoa, still dizzy."

"You're fine, says your physician." Ratchet

"Ugh..." Arcee

"Killshot, Firewall, you watch over Mitchel." The two bots nodded, a slight smile on Firewall's face.

"What?! He gets two bots?!" Miko shouted, outraged.

"He could still take away Bulkhead." I said, Miko shutting up quickly. "Besides that, what are they going to do? Stare at me while I lie on the medical bed?" a slightly blue tint came to the Firewall's cheeks while the bots took their charges back to their homes.

"He does have a point Optimus, he doesn't really have a place to stay other than the medical bed." Killshot said.

"Then we shall make accommodations. I'm sure there's a spare room in the base that he can make his personal quarters." Optimus

"Hmm... storage room A2 just down the hall has been empty since we got here. Might be a little dusty and have some webs and such in it, but I'm sure we can clean that up." Firewall

I nodded. "Thanks. Hopefully I'll be able to find an old cot or something... I don't think I'd be able to sleep on a normal bed. I stuck to sleeping in chairs or sitting up against something back in Afghanistan. Helped me keep sleeping lightly. Note to self: Get a chair."

 **Author's note: I know, just seems like a modified version of episode 2. As is, there's not much I could do in the way of making a thing for episode 1, as Arcee and Bumblebee had already dealt with Jack, Miko and Rafael at the end of the last chapter. I'm hoping that everyone will keep reading this, and I'm hoping that my battle scenes will get a helluva lot better... I'm used to doing personal battle scenes, not the battle scenes where I have the other characters fighting. Anyway, while I'm working on the next chapter I'll work on my battle scenes, get something with a more realistic feel. Also, I'd like some opinions on this: I'm considering adding flashbacks that aren't his, like flashbacks from the Great War, World War II, etc., in the eyes of an ancestor that he'll learn from for certain situations in a battle. Just an idea, but I'd like the opinions anyway.**


	4. Got A Runner

**Author's note: So, the free time I have is about to be seriously diminished starting August 8th in the US, regardless, here's chapter four. A message to my guest friend, if you create an account, 24 hours after your account is created we can chat about the story through PM, due to the spam protection thing that uses (hence the 24 hour delay). And yes, I know what you mean by the Ratchet moment. What's really funny is when Raf does it in one of the episodes. 'MIKO! I NEEDED THAT!' haha. I know that Rafael is only 12 1/4 years old, but nevertheless there is going to be some cursing in front of him. I'll try to keep it toned down considerably, since I'm not going to have Mitch just drop 25 F bombs in a row in front of Raf. He's going to let a couple slip now and then (We all have those moments) and there's going to be a fair amount of cursing in front of him in this chapter (one F bomb).**

It took about three hours to get the storage room cleaned up and filled with stuff. We found an old military cot in one of the sorage rooms, a metal fold-up chair, we got in touch with Fowler and he supplied an abundance of LAW rocket launchers, a treadmill and other exercise equipment, and some new equipment. I got several crates filled with M16s, M4 Carbines, M249 SAWs, ammunition, and three crates filled respectively with M9 Berettas, Colt M1911A1s, and Desert Eagles. All in all, I had enough munitions in that room to blow up the base at least four, maybe five times, and since it was a fairly large storage room, I still had enough space to decorate a little, if I wanted to.

"BY THE ALLSPARK!" I heard Ratchet yell, and I came running from my chair, having almost fell asleep, and saw the piece of medbay equipment that Bulkhead mangled trying to kill him, having just sliced a piece of medbay equipment off.

"What the fuck?!"

"I NEEDED THAT!"

"What the frag is going on here? This better be worth coming out of power down- what in the Allspark is that?!" Killshot demanded, blasting the piece of medbay equipment. Optimus came running around the corner, blasters ready.

"And **stay** broken..." Ratchet said, stomping on it as it started to get back up.

"What happened?" Optimus asked.

"The doctor's equipment just tried to kill him." I told him.

"Is this true?"

"Oh, it's true Optimus. If it weren't for Killshot I might have been killed by that thing. What would have caused that?"

"I have a grave suspicion, Ratchet. Dark Energon."

Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead all came in through the tunnel, bringing their charges with them, Firewall came from a hallway, and she looked tired.

Optimus quarantined the piece of equipment. "If the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment to life, it would stand to reason that the very same substance brought Cliffjumper back from the dead."

"Hmm... that would account for his life signal inexplicably coming back online, but... Dark Energon? It's so scarce as to be virtually nonexistant. What would it be doing on Earth..."

"It was transported. By Megatron..."

"For what purpose?"

"To conquer this planet, by raising an army of the undead." Optimus said, Ratchet laughing a little.

"Hold up a minute Optimus," I said. "Who the hell is Megatron?"

I noticed the bots had transformed and Bulkhead was pulling a guitar case out of himself.

"Someone I viewed as a brother... who lost his way. And is now the leader of the Decepticons."

"But Megatron would need to break quite a few toaster ovens, I mean, where on this world would he find that many Cybertronian dead?"

"Does it matter? Find him, stop him, kill him, not necessarily in that order, though finding him is first no matter what. First rule of Marine warfare... only bring artillery if you want to kill everybody. We can't use any artillery if we don't know where he is, if you know what I mean."

"I... cannot agree with your sentiment, Mitchel."

"I can." Killshot said.

"Regardless, Autobots, prepare to-"

"Roll out?" Arcee said.

"Remain here. Ratchet, you'll come with me. Arcee, we'll remain outside of communications range for some time, so I'm putting you in charge."

"Dude, you're biggest, you should be the boss." I heard Miko say to Bulkhead.

"Uh... he... never picks me."

"Optimus, with all due respect, playing bodyguard is one thing, **babysitting** is another! Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war." Arcee said, trying to whisper the last sentence to Optimus.

"My pistons may be rusty but my hearing is sharp as ever."

"For the moment, it is only reconnaissance."

"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice?"

"Arcee, much has changed in the last 24 hours. And we all need to adapt. Ratchet, bridge us out." He said as Ratchet fired up the groundbridge and walked through it.

"Okay chief, so uh... what's on the activities list?" Jack

"I'm going on patrol." Arcee

"But Optimus told us to stay-" Bulkhead

"When you're in charge, you can call the shots. Bee, Killshot, Firewall, with me." Arcee said, Bumblebee randomly beeping and the other two nodding. "Bulkhead, you're in charge." She finished before the four of them rolling out through the tunnel.

"So... what's on the activities list?" Bulkhead asked before an earsplitting noise came to my ears.

"How about... band practice?" Miko asked, the guitar in her hands, and the speakers and amps hooked up.

"But we're not a band." Raf

"Why so anti-social, come on, Raf, you play anything?" Miko

"Um... Keyboard?" Raf

"Laptops and samples, good. Jack?"

"I... sometimes mess around on the harmonica."

"Do I look like I do country? Just... cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming." I knew exactly what kind of music this was going to be. "Bulkhead, percussion! We're going for a big, industrial sound. Mitch?"

"I'll play that guitar like a damn fiddle and use you as the bow if you try making me take any part in this." I said, walking towards my room.

"Hey! What's wrong? Marine too chicken to take part?"

Something inside me snapped. I stormed up to her and grabbed the guitar, taking the jack out of it and the straps off of it and slamming it against the floor, shattering the instrument.

"Hey, what's the deal?! Do you know how much that cost?!"

"Do you know what you did wrong, you little brat?!"

"Wha- hey, Mitch, calm down-" Bulkhead started to say.

"Shut the hell up, the little brat needs a lesson." I said, Raf covering his ears. "I've got three bullet wounds that still aren't fully healed, one on my left arm, one on my left shoulder, and one on my right side, I got those by fighting with my brothers in arms trying to survive a God-damned horde of Al Qaeda troops, where three of the four of them died, me and one man, as far as I know, were the only survivors. I didn't get hurt being a damn chicken, a damned **coward**! I got hurt trying to buy one of my comrades time to get back to base, now keep that in mind when you want to call me chicken again, kid." I spat, heading back to my room when I was done.

The proximity sensor went off before I was even halfway there. "What the fuck now?!" I mumbled, heading back into the main hub, Miko charging at me with the broken neck of the guitar, Jack and Rafael trying to catch her.

"It's Agent Fowler, you kids need to hide." Bulkhead said, turning just in time to see what Miko was doing.

"Sorry about this kid..." I said, waiting for her to try and stab me with the neck of the guitar, and when she tried I grabbed it and took it out of her hands, hitting her in the head and knocking her out cold. I dropped the neck and grabbed my hand, which was hurting from punching her. "JESUS CHRIST THAT WAS LIKE PUNCHING A COW IN THE HEAD!" I yelled as Fowler came through the door, Jack and Raf just managing to hide Miko. 'Great, I think I broke my hand, and now I got this asshole to deal with.' I thought.

"PRIME!" Fowler yelled, walking out of the elevator.

"Agent Fowler! He's not here- Nobody's here, except me and Mitch of course."

"Well, where did he go? Wait, don't tell me. He's out pancaking a minimall. Now I don't know what language you bots speak on your planet, but Prime promised that he would handle the Decepticons, and blowing a crater in the middle of Nebraska is NOT what the word 'handle' means in English, so you tell Prime-"

"Oh for the love of- Look, I just got done handling one kid here, I don't need one that's an Army Ranger trying to shove his crap down our throats too. You know what the word 'handle' means to me? It's using every damn piece of artillery we have available and pounding a target into submission!"

"What do you mean one kid?"

"Crap." I said, Jack and Raf walking out to where he could see them.

"Contact with civilians... Team Prime has really gone off book this time, wait, don't tell me, you're running a daycare center!"

"We're interns." Jack

"Student interns." Raf

"Earning extra credit in-" Jack

"Robotics." Miko said, somehow having come around.

I looked down at the Desert Eagle in the holster on my leg.

"Okay... Let's move. I'm taking all three of you into federal custody. It's for your own protection." Fowler said walking down the catwalk and towards the kids, Bulkhead stomping in front of the kids to stop him, and I unholstered my Desert Eagle, aiming it at him.

"These kids are under the combined protection of the Autobots and the United States Marine Corps, so unless you want a .50 caliber bullet through your brain, walk away."

"Is that so? Well maybe you could explain that to my superiors at the Pentagon." Fowler said, walking up to a phone.

"Don't use that phone, it's-" Bulkhead said, smashing the phone with a single digit. "Out of order."

" **This** isn't over, bigfoot! Not by a long shot!" Fowler said, walking into the elevator and ascended to the top floor.

"Next time I'm going to shoot him." I said, holstering the DE.

The alarm sounded again, Raf covering his ears again. "My ears..." Rafael said

"It's an SOS... from Fowler." Bulkhead said, staring at the monitor in the hub. The alarm ended.

"Can you trace it?" Raf asked.

"Location scanner's incomplete... Oh well."

"Oh well? I may hate the fat... Raf, keep your ears covered. I may hate the fat bastard but he still knows the location of this base. If the Cons have him, it's only a matter of time until they know too."

"Gah... you're right. But we don't even know where they took him."

"I think it's obvious. For them to travel around as fast as they do they either have a groundbridge of their own or they have a ship. And a few years back..." I looked at Raf.

"The government started microchipping their agents." We said at the same time.

"I might be able to track him through that, if I can hack into the feds' mainframe, maybe I can pinpoint Fowler's coordinates." Raf

"You know how to hack? But you're like... two years old." Miko

"Twelve. And a quarter..." Raf said, telling Bulkhead the coordinates once he had the coordinates. Bulkhead fired up the groundbridge using the coordinates once Raf finished telling him what they were.

"Uh... Mitch, you're in charge!" Bulkhead said as he ran through. I saw Miko run in after him, so I ran in after her.

"Jack, you're up!" I yelled, running through the 'bridge.

I looked around on the other side, in a canyon of some sort. I saw Bulkhead behind one large rock and Miko behind another, Miko saying something to him and a Vehicon bearing down on her. Bulkhead got into a CQC engagement with the Vehicon and it ended with him ripping circuitry out of the 'bot, killing it. I snuck over to Miko and tapped her shoulder. I put my hand over her mouth when she was about to scream at seeing me behind her and not hearing me approach.

"You talk or scream, you die. I thought you'd have figured that out with what just happened." I whispered to her.

"Arcee, Bumblebee, Firewall, Killshot, do you read?"

"Loud and clear Bulkhead."

"I have a situation."

"Bulkhead, they're children. Humans. Just... do whatever."

"Yeah, well, we Fowler was captured, I went on a solo rescue mission, Miko followed me, Mitch followed her, and we're staring down a Decepticon warship-"

"You're **where?** She's **where?** "

"Mitch is **where?!** " I heard Firewall demand over the commlink.

"They're with me staring at a Decepticon warship, we haven't been spotted... yet. Except for one Vehicon, and he's offlined now."

"Miko, you're coming with me." I whispered to her. "You are not staying on this battlefield." I grabbed her arm and started slipping off to where the original bridge location before the conversation over the conversation was over, and Jack and Raf came through, the bridge closing.

"Tell me this is a fucking joke."

"Wha-?"

"Raf, I expected better from you. Jack, I hoped you had more sense than this. And you, you little brat..." I said, glaring at Miko. "The next time you pull a stunt like this I'm locking you in storage room A3 with no food and no water for two days. I'll make sure it's a weekend. This is your only warning. Now, all of you are getting to a God-damned covered position, and you are going to stay there, if I see so much as a hair out of place, the entire damned world will be falling around your ears, do you understand me?!"

"Yeah..." they said.

"Yeah doesn't cut it. You piss me off this much, you start using 'sir', so it's either 'Yes sir', 'Aye sir', 'aye-aye sir', or 'kiss my ass, sir' and if you say the last one I'll kick your asses so much that there won't be anything TO kiss, do you understand me?!"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, now get to a damned cover position!" I growled, taking cover at a large rock nearby. "Let's hope the others get here in time." I looked around, keeping an eye on the enemy patrols and one on the kids. 'Fucking stupid brat... She should've known better.' I thought. When I looked back at Miko, she was gone. "Oh that's it... she's going through hell week." I said, seeing a dish of some kind go flying past. "What the hell?!"

I looked at the ship and Bulkhead had knocked off some Vehicons with some kind of comm dish. I turned around to look at it just in time to get hit with something, being knocked out.

I came to in what seemed like seconds later, but I was back at the base on the medical bed, the 8 bots and the three kids huddled around the bed. "How long was I out?"

"About 18 hours." Patchkit said.

"What happened?"

"A stray blaster shot landed just next to you, it superheated the area around it and gave you third degree burns on half of your person. Honestly, the way I figure, you're lucky to be alive."

"Lucky... If I were lucky I'd be dead, if you want to know the truth. Parents killed in a terrorist attack, foster brother killed in an ambush, my brothers in arms killed in Afghanistan... And I'm still here. Sure, Petrenko's likely still around... but..." My eyes widened, and I found myself in a trench, a soldier in a trench coat and gas mask standing over me.

"Come on, Kamerad! You saved me a month ago, I think it's fair I do the same now!" I heard the man say, his rifle in one hand, pulling me up with another. I identified him as a German soldier almost immediately. I looked down, my uniform not matching his. It looked... 'British?' I thought.

"Come on, Mitchel, you need to get to your feet. You need to get this back to your side of the front, good luck mein friend." He said, handing me a letter. I looked to my left and saw British Mk IV tanks coming towards the trench, fairly far off. A mortar shell exploded behind us, shrapnel scraping our helmets. Gas shells were dispensing poison gas throughout the front, artillery shells exploding all around. I could hear shouting, the screaming of wounded men, rifle fire and machine gun fire, I could feel the vibrations from the artillery shells detonating. I heard mortars firing from a line further off to my right. I shook when I heard what had to be my voice, except it wasn't mine.

"Will do, Franz. God bless you, hopefully this will end this damned war early." my persona said before taking off at a run through the trenches.

Suddenly I was back in the base, staring at the ceiling.

"What... the hell... was that...?"

"It looked like you were having another flashback, Mitch..." Firewall said, and she looked pretty concerned.

"Yeah... it was... except it wasn't mine..."

"Look... Miko, you almost died out there... Mitchel almost died out there-"

"Jack, we ALL almost died out there!"

"If this was just an average day with the Autobots... then I don't want anything to do with it..."

"Jack... putting you in harm's way was never our intent. However, it is no longer the safety of you three that is at risk, but the safety of all humankind." Optimus said, the groundbridge firing up.

"No point in long goodbyes, here's the door." Ratchet said.

Jack turned and looked at Raf. "Come on Raf..."

Raf looked at Bumblebee before shaking his head. "I'll be okay, Jack. See you at school."

"Sure thing..." He said, turning and walking towards the groundbridge, Arcee stepping into his path. "I know... You don't exist..." He said, continuing towards the groundbridge.

"Don't make me hunt you down..." Arcee said to him.

"Jack." I called to him, and he stopped and looked at me. "... Stay safe, brother."

His eyes widened a little as he fully turned to face me from his position and saluted. I got up and limped over to him, the burns hurting like hell. When I stood a good four feet from him, my heels clicked together as I returned the action.

"You don't stay safe, I'll haul your ass back here faster than you can say 'Con'."

He grinned, just before continuing through the bridge, which closed behind him.

"Miko... we need to talk, you and I... I gave you a strict order on that field... You disobeyed it. Optimus, I think I'm within my rights to render punishment for insubordination, correct?" I asked, and Optimus nodded. I smirked. "Guess who's going through boot camp."

Her eyes widened and she ran off. I just laughed.

"Gotta love that fear factor... She thought I'd actually do it." I said, looking at Arcee. I never saw a face that practically had 'depressed' plastered on their forehead more clearly than that. "Arcee?"

"Yeah?"

"... Go get him."

"What? But he-"

"You ain't ready to let go. He isn't either, he may act like he is, but he's not ready to lose you."

"Yeah... You're right..."

"Bulkhead, get Miko and try to soften him up. Arcee, you'll show up after them, about twenty minutes after. Go." They nodded and transformed, speeding out of the base.

"Hello... I'm Mister Ed..." Fowler said, sitting up on a medical bed on the second level.

"Tell me this is a fragging joke... You brought the Ranger **here?** "

"This is no joke, Mitchel. Agent Fowler is recovering from Starscream's interrogation." Optimus said

"Starscream? You mean that drag queen wannabe that tried to blow up the energon mine?" I heard Firewall giggle a little. 'So... she's learned some more about our language than I thought...'

"What is this... drag queen you speak of?"

"Nevermind, replace drag queen with femme in that sentence." For once, I heard Optimus chuckle. 'Looks like there is a personality under that act after all.'

"Yes, that's the one. You should get back on the medical bed, your burns aren't healed yet. With the rate at which they are healing, I'd say you'll be out of action for at least a couple days." Ratchet said, not turning away from the console he was standing at. I headed back to the medical bed and laid down. Bulkhead came speeding back in a couple minutes later, Miko with him.

"It can't be..." Ratchet said. "OPTIMUS! These are engineering specs for a space-time vortex generator."

"Megatron is building a spacebridge... If he hasn't already."

"The sooner he leaves the better." Bulkhead said."

"Bulkhead, a spacebridge runs in two directions. Megatron may not be using it to leave Earth... but to bring through his conquering army..."

"The main event Megatron referred to? But the only place Megatron could **possibly** recruit that many fallen warriors..." Ratchet muttered

"Cybertron... That's where all your big battles were waged, wasn't it?" I asked.

"Indeed, Mitchel."

"Great. Looks like I'm left out of the big battle."

"You were going to be left out anyway, Mitchel. This is a fight humans cannot be part of." Ratchet said. I nodded.

"We cannot allow Megatron to send Dark Energon through his spacebridge. If we fail, the dead of Cybertron will rise, swarm through its vortex, and invade Earth, bending humankind to Megatron's twisted rule."

"A speech? Optimus, this isn't going to motivate anyone..." I said, sitting up. "We are the last line of defense. There are over seven billion people on this planet. If we fail, mankind will be subjected to a tyrant the likes of which we have never seen. Remember what you're doing this for. You're doing this to protect over seven billion people from something they could never stand against. You're doing this to protect those closest to you-" I stopped, motioning at the bots around the base. "and those that aren't so close to you." I pointed at Fowler as an example. "The Decepticons think they can come to mankind's home, kick us around, try to enslave us. I'm counting on you eight 'Bots to make sure that we get our message across loud and clear." I looked at Raf and he covered his ears. "Here's our message: Fuck you, 'Cons. As soon as that spacebridge is found, do me a favor and kick Megatron's ass, Prime."

"That's a favor I believe I can fulfill, Mitchel."

"Wow... didn't peg you as one for speeches, Mitch." Firewall said smiling.

"Slagging fine speech, General." Killshot said with a smirk.

"Unfortunately I'm not a General, Killshot." I said, lying down. "Don't want to be one, either. I'd end up like Patton, get set back all the time by the other Generals and then they'd try to kill me by sending some pilot after me." I said, and I felt myself slip into unconsciousness.

 **Author's note: Chapter four, I've just combined episodes 3 and 4 and a little of episode 5, Chapter 5 should focus on the rest of episode 5. Reviews, please. Ones that say what you'd like to see in the story, like more of Killshot's past or something like that. Also, I know this is a quick update since chapter 3, I was working on this while I was away from wi-fi over the weekend and was putting the finishing touches on it yesterday and today.**


	5. Rookies and Cameras

**Author's note: Yes, yes, I know, I know, you don't like how I put Author's notes at the beginning and end of each chapter and yadda yadda yadda... But I don't care so read the chapter.**

I woke with a start, still hurting from the burns suffered. From what I gathered from what I was told, the only way I could be knocked out by blaster fire was the concussion from the bolt landing so close.

"Optimus, I've pinpointed the location of Megatron's spacebridge. High in Earth's orbit." Ratchet said.

"Out of our reach..." Optimus replied

"Okay, so you guys don't fly... but can't you just groundbridge there?" Miko asked.

"The groundbridge has limited range. Stretched all the way into orbit it's vortex could snap, and scatter us to the stars..."

"So you're telling me this thing can get you on the other side of the planet, but it can't put you on an equal distance upwards?" I asked the medic, who put a hand to his metal chin.

"Ep ep ep, Mitchel, I respect you, but know that this is complex technology and- Hmm... actually... thinking about it that way, it doesn't make much sense... I'm still wary of the dangers, however."

"Since Megatron is likely already in transit, I'm afraid we must take that risk. Reaching the spacebridge first is our only means of stopping him" Optimus said, a bike horn honking twice as Arcee and Jack sped in.

"Hey... Guess who's back?" He said after getting off of Arcee, who transformed into her femme form afterwards.

"Autobots, prepare for departure." Optimus said, seemingly ignoring the comment.

"Where to?" Arcee asked, Miko speaking right after she finished.

"The final frontier."

"Space? I-I-I thought they didn't have any way to get there..." Jack said, confused.

"They don't." Me and Rafael said at the same time.

"Really..." He continued.

"Be seeing you?" Jack said, looking at Arcee. She just smirked and nodded a little.

"Don't make me and Jack hunt you down." I said, looking at her. She chuckled.

"Wouldn't dream of it." She said as Ratched powered up the groundbridge.

I smirked. Then I realized something. 'How did I become attached to this kid?' I thought to myself, finally having realized I had gotten attached to Jack.

Everyone made their goodbyes and I looked at Firewall and Killshot, who were looking right back at me. "You two going to say something or are we just going to stare at each other like a bunch of idiots? Killshot, you know you've got to explain a little bit more of your past, and Firewall, you know I can't do much without my tank." I said with a smirk, teasing Firewall a little.

"Oh, so I'm just your tank?" She said, shifting her weight to one leg, crossing her arms."

"Of course. That, and a good friend of mine." I said, Killshot smirking a little, but it vanished quickly.

"You want to know more of my past? I'll tell you this much. The reason I defected was because my sparkmate... opened my eyes with what she did during the war. She... wasn't what you would call a 'good person'." He said, and I knew what he meant. I had no reason to budge on the subject.

"That'll do for now, but that wasn't what I meant."

"Figured you'd want to know sooner or later. May as well be sooner."

I nodded. "Come back safe, you two."

"Or else I'll hunt you down." Jack said, coming up next to me.

I looked at him and chuckled. I was about a head taller than him, but he still managed to pull off looking like Franky, who was a few inches taller than me. "Kid, you might make a soldier yet."

The two bots looked at eachother and shrugged.

"Optimus, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will **never** forgive you." Ratchet said, looking at the red/blue colored mech.

"Until we meet again old friend." Optimus said, a piece of armored plating covering his mouth afterwards. "Autobots! Roll out!" He yelled, the group transforming and heading through the groundbridge, leaving me, Jack, Miko, Rafael, Patchkit, and Ratchet at the base.

"Er... Mitchel, I meant no offense with what I said." Ratchet said, looking at me.

"Puh-leez, dealing with Miko, I can see where you get that attitude from." I said, returning the look, and we both burst out laughing.

"HEY! That's not funny!" Miko yelled, punching me in the arm. Jack glared at her, basically asking 'Do you want to be punched in the head again?' and Miko backed off. I turned and looked at her when the laughter stopped.

"My turn. I'll give you ten seconds to run." She turned pale and started to run. "One Mississippi, two Mississippi, TEN MISSISSIPPI!" I said, running after her, jumping over the railing instead of using the stairs, going down the large drop and kicking off the wall when I neared the bottom, using the momentum to go into a run after her. I smirked, a whole different idea in mind.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she screamed as I closed the distance. 10 feet... 8 feet... 5 feet.. 2 feet... I tapped her back and started running the other direction, getting a game started to lighten the mood a bit.

"Tag, you're it, kiddo!"

"Wha-?" She said, confused at first, before turning around and running after me, having gotten several extra feet away from her due to us running in separate directions. I ran up the wall I used to kick off of, jumping to the stairwell railing and climbing over before ascending the rest of the way and sliding down the railing when Miko got half way up. As she tagged me I managed to tap her in the arm, getting her back. Jack decided to join in, and Raf didn't because he knew he had a big disadvantage due to his size. The game continued for a while until Miko and Jack wore out. To be honest I was a little winded from all the running around. Then I noticed that Rafael was heading through a new open groundbridge.

"Where's he going?"

"A radiotelescope array, in a place called Texas."

"YOU! SOLDIER! You're out of uniform! Put on some pants!" Agent Fowler said, looking at me and pointing, sitting up on his medical bed, before falling back down. I shrugged.

"I'm wearing pants. I don't know what he's talking about. C'mon guys, let's go." I said, motioning for the other two to follow as I went after Raf. When we went through the groundbridge, the sun was immediately beating down on us, as we were in the middle of the desert. "Alright... Guys, since the Decepticons are likely on-site to use the array, we're using callsigns so they won't know who we are. I'm Spectre, Miko, you're Ada, Raf, you're Victor, Jack, you're Ghost. Keep those names in mind. And no matter what, do not show the enemy your faces. Some 'Con takes a drive through Jasper and sees you, he'll know your face if one of them has seen it, and you'll be a target."

"A couple vehicons saw me and Raf, why aren't we dead meat yet? Or even Miko?" Jack asked.

"Likely the vehicons that saw you were destroyed, like the one with Miko." I growled, remembering the incident in the canyon.

"Whoa, just a question..."

"Not taking anything out on you, just not a good memory. Let's move." I said, leading the group into the facility. When we found a room with a single computer, I made sure Raf got set up before looking around. When I saw a security camera, I took out my boot knife.

"What are you doing, Spectre?" Jack asked, looking at me funny. I turned to him and nodded slightly towards the camera.

"Ah... Cockroach on the wall." He said, changing the subject so the others wouldn't look, which they did because they though I had insectophobia, just as I ripped the camera out of place and cut the wires.

"Dammit, focus here, this is a real mission, and we're all in danger here if the 'Cons find out we're on-site and they are as well. Get your heads in the game." I said. I ignored all the conversations about what Raf was doing up until I saw the door open. "HIDE!" I whispered to them, ducking behind the desk, the others hiding behind various objects. I managed to see a tentacle-like thing look around before grabbing an axe and leaving. "Crap, FOLLOW IT!" I yelled, chasing the tentacle. When we got into the main computer room, I saw that a 'Con had cut the hardline connection and was standing at the broken skylight. He was staring at me and the kids and Miko took a picture. I hid my face and covered my name sewn onto the uniform just as the 'Con took a picture of us and flew off.

"Why's he leaving?" Miko asked.

"He's cut the hardline. The dishes are locked onto Cybertron. For good." Raf said, looking at her.

"Someone call Ratchet for a pickup..." I mumbled, extremely pissed now. I could tell Jack had covered his face but Miko didn't due to the picture and Raf didn't due to shock.

"What's wrong, Mitch?" Jack whispered the question to me.

"I'm pissed, Jack." I whispered back, trying to keep Rafael from hearing me and my foul language. "I fuckin' tell them, **specifically** , to hide their faces, and do they do it? No. They do the exact god-damn opposite! I swear I'm going to have to put Miko through basic training to get her to just follow simple orders, and Raf..." I shook my head. "I don't know how to handle this. I grew up as the younger brother, so I don't know how to do this the right way. Maybe you can handle it, I don't know." I saw the groundbridge open inside the room and I walked through it and into my room, pounding the hell out of a punching bag to vent my anger. When I heard the 'bots return I went to see the result. I saw all the bots back in one piece, except for a wounded Arcee who had her sister holding her and Bumblebee looking at her, worried.

"We lost one this week, by the Allspark don't let it be two..." Ratchet said.

"C'mon sis... don't die on us..." Firewall mumbled.

Jack walked up and put his hand in hers, and Arcee opened her optics slightly. "Arcee..."

"Jack... really?" She asked, smiling a little. "There **are** other motorcycles in the world..."

"But you're my first..."

"And Megatron?" Ratchet asked Optimus.

"Not even he could have survived ground zero."

"Prime!" Agent Fowler said, Optimus turning to look at him. "I didn't get to thank you bots for the save. I owe you one. We all do." He said from the elevator before hitting a button and heading topside.

"How long until he realizes his chopper blew up?" I asked, and everyone except Optimus burst into laughter. I could tell Prime was chuckling, but trying to keep it hidden. Firewall let Arcee down, and Arcee smiled at Jack, Miko walking up to Optimus.

"So... is this the part where you say 'goodbye' and tell us we need to forget we ever saw you?" She asked.

"It better not be!" I growled.

Optimus walked up to the console and used a comm array to send a message throughout the galaxy. "Without a means of leaving this world, we Autobots take strength in the bonds we have forged, with our four young friends- true warriors, if not in body, then in spirit." He pressed a button to record the message to transmit. "My name is Optimus Prime, and I send this message. Though we did not choose to be of Earth, it would seem we are here to stay. If you approach this planet with hostile intent, know this. We will defend _ourselves_. We will defend _**humanity**_. **We** will defend... _**Our home.**_ " He ended the recording and sent the transmission.

I smirked, looking at Firewall and Killshot. I found the two of them smiling, first looking at each other, then at me.

 **Author's note: Holy crap, I finally got around to it. Honestly it feels like it was a month since I updated and I know it wasn't that long ago, just about 3 maybe 4 days. Either way, here's chapter 5 and sorry if I seemed rude with the beginning Author's note for this chapter. And by the way, a message for my guest friend, no, the transformation is not going to be where the relationship starts between Firewall and Mitch. I hope I'll get a few more reviews out of this chapter than the last one did *cough* zero as of today on August 4 *cough* By that I mean stuff like 'I want to see more of (blank)' or 'I liked how (blank blank blankity blank blank blank)' or just generally an opinion that ISN'T trying to drag me down but maybe giving ways on how to improve the story.**


	6. Not All is What it Seems

**Author's note: So, last time I updated was what, the 5th? It's been over two weeks so to me this feels like it's years overdue. Enjoy chapter six, it's another combined episodes thing and is actually not focusing on the Skyquake and Scraplet episodes.**

So, Prime has declared Earth as his team's home, he's sworn to protect the planet and basically sent a giant "fuck you" to anyone who thought they might just stroll in and take us over without problems, that was a couple weeks ago. Since then I've gotten a tip, source unknown, that one of the people from the group that killed Zoey was still alive. So here I am in the middle of Chicago, in an alleyway waiting to do a drug deal with the guy, Patchkit having come with me as he was the only bot with the free time to do this.

I adjusted my hat (baseball cap) a little as I leaned against Patchkit, who was in his alt mode, which is a Chevy Trailblazer. "Dammit, when is he going to show..." I mumbled, a suitcase full of money next to me, just to make the deal look real. Just as I mumbled that I saw a guy in all black come around the corner, and walk up to me.

"Thomas Smith?" He asked.

"Geoffry Daniel?" I asked in return, and I saw him nod slightly. I adjusted my hat again so he couldn't see my face in the dark alleyway before picking up the suitcase.

"Your voice sounds familiar..."

"Don't know why. We haven't met. Not by this identity." I said before staring him in the eyes, or rather, eye. He was wearing an eyepatch from where I had hit him with a brick a year ago (Left eye), apparently having busted his eye at the least.

"Oh God... I knew it... I never forget a face..."

"You'll forget everything soon enough." I told him, right before hitting him in the head with the suitcase, knocking him to the ground.

"I didn't do anything, man! Just let me go!"

"You followed his orders, you're as guilty for Zoey's death as the rest of them!" yelled, kicking him in the side.

"Agh! Fuck! Listen, I have a wife and kids... we were in a tight spot... same as now, really... He was paying well for me to just help him... It was never anything... anything involving murder... A couple appartments cleared out here and there, that's it, I swear, I never knew that he was going to do... do that!"

"So you take your family from the Big Apple to Murder Inc.? Do you think I'm fucking stupid, or are you that fucking nuts?"

"I-I didn't think about it, I just wanted to get my family away from New York, I swear!"

"What proof do you have of your family, anyway?"

"I-I got a picture in my wallet. L-look!" He said, taking out his wallet and pulling the picture out of it.

I looked at the picture, taking it from him to get a better look. "Wife's a looker. Three kids? Two girls, one boy. The building in the background was built a week and a half ago, here in Chicago, if I remember right..."

"Y-Yeah..."

I handed the picture back to him and handed him the suitcase. "200 grand, as requested. Just get rid of the coke, you don't need it. Get your family to a safer city, and spend the money wisely. Get a good job." I said, walking back to Patchkit.

"Y-you mean... You're not going to kill me?"

"Why? I have a gut feeling that says you aren't lying. That, and I don't want your kids to grow up without a father... There's enough people like me in the world. The fact I was going to propose to Zoey the night that I hit you with a brick weighed a lot in my mind, but you aren't a bad person... not that I can tell. Sorry about the eye."

"Don't be... I made a big mistake and I paid the price for it..."

I nodded as he got up and threw several packages in the dumpster, walking out of the alley afterwards, taking the suitcase with him. I got inside Patchkit and was immediately assailed by questions.

"Why didn't you kill him?"

"Morals. Ideals. Etcetera. He has kids, and a wife. That's more than I've ever had, and I know what it's like to have a parent, no, worse, both parents ripped out of your life. I don't need more of me running around the world..."

"But wouldn't it have been simpler to-"

"Patchkit. Focus on the words I'm telling you. Shut up, or I rip out your voice box with my bare hands. Okay? It was my decision, I don't need anyone questioning it."  
"Point made..." He said, pulling out of the alley and finding a way onto a road leading back to Nevada. "Mitch, I didn't mean to offend you, I'm just new to this."

"That much is obvious, Patch. And don't worry about it." I said, hearing sirens behind us. "Oh what the fuck... Pull over, don't do anything else unless I tell you to."

"Got it." He said, pulling onto the side of the road, a cop pulling up behind us. I got out and stood at the door of my car.

"Officer, what's the problem? I was going the speed limit."

"The hell you were, son." He said. I felt my blood start to boil.

"Son? **Son?** _ **SON?!**_ At most you're twenty six, I'm nineteen, sorry pal but there's no way a man seven years older than me is my father, especially when-"

"Get up against the car, hands behind your back."

"Fuck that. Official USMC business-"

"Ooh, a Jarhead, well guess what, leatherneck, I don't care." He said, reaching for his gun.

By the time he had it out of his holster I had my Berretta pressed against his forehead, pushing him back to his squad car. "Fucking... What the hell are you? Ground-pounder? Squid? Flyboy? Puddle Pirate? Why in the fuck is it that no matter where I go I can't seem to get away from you people?! Let me make this perfectly clear, you even think about trying to use that pansy-ass Glock, and I'll blow your fucking head clean off of your shoulders. Do you understand me?"

"Y-Yes sir."

"Good. Next time you want to interfere with someone who has orders from Commandant Harding, you won't be this lucky. You're getting off with a warning, next time your head is gone." I said, walking back to Patchkit and getting in, the officer standing there looking as pale as a piece of printer paper. "Let's go." I mumbled, and Patchkit got back on the road, heading back to Jasper.

"Were you really going to-"

"Yes, if he tried it I would have killed the son of a bitch."

"But the man in the alley-"

"Didn't have a gun. If he had and he had drawn it, family man or not, he would have died in that alleyway."

"But he's-"

"A cop? He's a crooked cop. We were going 65 in a 70, that spells one of two things, 'Speed trap' or 'Crooked cop'. Seeing as how there was only one cop there, I'm leaning towards the latter."

"He was still an officer of the law, and by now I'm sure we have at least twenty of them after us now."

"Don't bet on it. The look on his face when I mentioned the USMC Commandant spelled out 'I better not fuck with this guy'."

" **Do** you have orders from a Marine Commandant?"

"No, I don't have any orders from him. And it's not 'a' Commandant, it's 'the' Commandant, there's only one in the Joint Chiefs."

"Hmm..."

"You wonder what's going up back at base?"

"Well, they discovered something frozen solid in the arctic. Me and Killshot have a bet as for what it is. I'm betting escape pod."

"What's he betting?"

"He's betting it's a scraplet trap. Winner gets an extra energon cube."

"Heh... If only it were that easy for us humans. Most of our bets end up costing us a fortune..."

"True."

We carried on some idle conversation until I fell asleep several hours later, on the approximate one-day trip to get back.

DREAM FLASHBACK

I was running through the trenches, back in the body of the first persona I had a flashback as, this 'other Mitchel'. I looked to my left and saw three destroyed Mk IV tanks, another Mk IV still pressing on the German lines, I saw some of them nod at me as I ran by, an officer saluting even amidst the chaos of the battlefield. It's a miracle that none of the artillery raining down has killed me. I rounded a corner and kept running, every moment possibly being my last. To my front, the Allied lines, to my back, the German line, and all around me is nothing but mortar fire and falling artillery shells. I dove into a covered section of trench as a shell landed right next to it. "Bloody idiots! Just throw artillery shells wherever the fuck you please, by all means, you fucking imbeciles in the Royal Artillery!" my persona said, and looked straight at a shattered mirror, giving me a somewhat good look at what his face looked like.

Half (left half) of his face was burned, a faded-looking white eye and a blue eye staring at the image, blonde hair showing just under the helmet he was wearing. The half of his face that wasn't burned had scars almost everywhere, but somehow in my mind I knew who this was. I couldn't place it. My persona got up and started running again, leaving the covered section of trench, which was now all but gone due to the artillery shell, the persona having gotten just low enough in time to avoid injury.

"So help me when I find out who was in command of the artillery in this battle, I'll have them out of the King's army!" my persona said to himself, nearing the Allied lines, coming up on a section of Scotts holding a portion of trench.

"What's your bloody rush, mate? Can't ya see that-"

"Oh do shut up, Corporal. Provide cover fire while I fall back to the command post, I have a delivery for Allied Command, and it must reach them as soon as bloody possible!"

PRESENT

I woke with a start, Patchkit almost swerving off of the road.

"Scrap, you scared me there, Mitch."

"Sorry... Damn... How much longer we got?" I said before yawning, still trying to figure out what was so important, let alone as for why I got these flashbacks that weren't mine.

"About an hour. You were out for a long time."

"Alright... Damn, that was too real..."

"Another flashback?"

"Yeah..." I mumbled, still not having told anyone that I was having flashbacks that weren't mine.

"Hmm. Oh, did you hear about a certain someone at the base having a... what is it, a 'crush', on you?"

"No, I didn't, who is it?"

"Oh man... If you don't know... this is too good to ruin, you'll have to find out on your own. Just go through your memories, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"Uh... Okay?"

12 DAYS AGO

I had been doing routine maintenance around 3 in the morning due to not being able to sleep, and Firewall walked in from her quarters.

"Jeez, Firewall, do you ever clean up? I mean, there's layers of grime on your armor."

"Oh... Sorry Mitch, I never noticed..."

"Riiight... c'mon, I gotta get you looking presentable before the rest of the team wakes up." I said, motioning for her to follow me.

"Alright." She mumbled, following me to my quarters, and I had stuff for polishing armor laid out in case anyone decided they would want me to get them looking a little better as far as the bots went. Ratchet had me make sure I'd have everything necessary, and it seems that he views me as though I'm his own son, as he had actually asked for me to help him with some calibrations on the scanners (Which he doesn't trust ANYONE else with, even Rafael, who has much more skill on computers than me.) and after some help figuring out how exactly to calibrate them it got done pretty quick.

"Alright, got a giant robot sized towel over there, I know how finicky you bots are about your... what are they again? Protoforms?" I asked, pointing to a really large towel (that made Optimus look like Arcee in size comparison) that was hanging up in a corner, completely cutting off any sight into the corner. She walked into the corner and hid behind the towel and started putting armor past it to allow me to clean it up.

ONE HOUR LATER

"Aaaaand that's that. Start putting it back on, I need to get back to maintenance before Ratchet takes my head for not fixing a leak in the energon- What the..." I said, looking at my phone, which had a text talking about someone from my past having survived a brick bashed into his face and is living in Chicago, alias Geoffrey Daniel, and detailing how to arrange a meeting, and I followed the details in setting up the meeting.

"Mitch, what's up?" I heard Firewall ask, and I could have swore I heard 'honey' at the end of the question, but I let it slide as a hallucination.

"Nothing, just personal stuff."

"Oh, alright."

PRESENT

"Oh for the love of..."

"Figure it out?"

"It's Firewall, isn't it?"

"Took you long enough."

"Look, she's Cybertronian, I'm human, we aren't compat-"

"Ep, ep, ep, wrong, you are. Cybertronian physiology is actually much like human physiology."

"She could end up eating my head if we tried to kiss."

"True... But still..."

"And plus I've learned about Cybertronians through Ratchet, I know the whole mess about interface cables and interface ports and whatnot, so I know mechs have both and femmes have just the port. Either way, I'm just... Well, I mean she's cute and all but..." I said, trying to find a reason not to and my mind started screaming at me. 'Did I just call Firewall **CUTE**?! A giant robot?! **WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!** ' "Damn it..."

"Give her a shot, Mitch. I doubt she'd disappoint you."

"Uh-huh. Look, I don't need a relationship right now, I need to focus on how to fight the 'Cons."

"Right, because you'll obviously be able to do that at some point anyway. Face it Mitch, even with all the training, they're going to keep you on low-risk missions."

"They wouldn't..."

"Yes, they would. Look, Firewall needs someone. Her last sparkmate... Let's just say that when he died, she's been... different, ever since. A little... you know, coo-coo."

"And I'm supposed to just be that person so you all get your soldier back?! Look, if you all won't let me fight the 'Cons **with** your help, I'll fight them **without** your help."

"Mitch, that's not what I..."

"Oh, really? That's not what you meant? That's not what you fucking meant?! **That's the same shit I seem to have heard all of my fucking** _ **life**_ **!** It's never what anyone meant when they say it, is it?! It always just 'came out wrong' or 'I took it the wrong way', **fuck** that! People need to figure out what the fuck they mean before they ever open their goddamn mouths, Cybertronians included." I spat.

"And you should learn that people, Cybertronians included, make mistakes, a lot of mistakes."

I was about to spit something else but decided not to as we had reached the base doors. When we got inside I got out and immediately headed for my room to pound the hell out of the punching bag.

"Mitch, what's wrong? You kinda ran in here in a hurry after you got back with Patchkit..." Firewall asked through the door when I finally reached my objective and proceeded to pound the hell out of the punching bag.

"How long, Fire? How long have you had this crush on me?" I said while beating the punching bag, almost knocking it off of its chain.

"Y-You never knew...?"

"OF COURSE I NEVER KNEW! I wouldn't be asking if I didn't know!"

"Um... A-A while now... A couple weeks..."

"The **truth** , Fire..."

"Since you got here..."

"Hmph."

"M-Mitch..."

I suddenly managed to knock the punching bag off of its chain, angry- to what or who, I don't know, probably myself for trying to lock myself away from seeing the little things that were signs of her getting attached, to lock myself away from getting over Zoey, or maybe at Fire for not coming right out and saying it weeks ago, maybe that Patchkit told me, that Killshot didn't tell me, or rather that NONE of the team told me. I stood frozen, staring daggers into the wall in front of me, anger plastered on my face, my arm extended from where I had just punched the now grounded punching bag.

"Mitch, are you okay?"

" **NO!** I'm not okay, I'm not okay at all, I'm pissed and I don't even know what at! And that's making me even more pissed because I don't know **what** to be pissed about!" I yelled at her through the door, not even turning my head. "Dammit, why is this happening?" I asked quietly, not really looking for an answer. "Why is she into me... why... all I have are 'why's and no answers..."

"Mitch, I-"

"What?!"

"... N-nevermind... I-I'll come back later..."

I let out a roar and slammed my fist into the downed punching bag. "Why am I such a fucking idiot?! I feel the same, deep inside I know I feel the same as her... But she's a giant robot. I'm a human being. Those two things... They just don't mix... We try to kiss, she'll eat my head. Big problem there." I sighed, going to look in a mirror, and saw something that horrified me. My eyes were originally blue, and I saw my right eye had turned red and was returning to its original color. "What the fuck?!"

I looked closer, blinking several times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. "What the hell..."

"Mitchel, is something wrong?" I heard from what could only be Prime outside my door.

"You're goddamn right something's wrong, my right eye... what the hell? I have blue eyes. My right eye was red... it's... back to blue now but..."

"You may require a human doctor for this apparent phenomenon, Ratchet isn't well versed in human medicine."

"I should be fine, Optimus... That scared me though. I never knew it did that... I always avoided mirrors when I was angry..."

"I see. The others are celebrating a victory I am not proud of, you may wish to join them."

"What victory?"

"Skyquake's death."

"Who?"

"An old enemy of mine... one I hoped would see reason."

"Alright... I'll go talk to Fire at some point, too..." I said, hearing the 'bot walk off. I sighed, looking at my eye in the mirror again, which was back to its normal blue. I sighed, deciding to look at my wardrobe, which I had managed to piece one together, managing to get my dress uniform back, which I put on, adjusting my hat and looking in the mirror again.

I saw a man at least three times my age wearing the uniform, scars across his features, the left side of his face burned, his left eye's iris solid black, his right eye red. At first I was a little shaken, but then I recognized the face. Despite all the scars, and the different eye color, this was the man who I was in the flashbacks, this 'other' Mitchel. And then I noticed the similarities between what I remembered I looked like when I originally had looked in the mirror and this man. This man was my great grandfather, he was the message runner I saw through the eyes of, and after the Great War, he came to the 'States and joined the Marine Corps.

I saluted, and the mirror image did so with the _opposite_ hand. I blinked and I saw myself as normal in the mirror, the mirror image saluting as just that, a mirror image. I sighed, and left the room, heading into the main hub, turning sideways as an empty husk of what was once an energon cube went flying by. "Watch where you're aiming, Bulkhead."

"Sorry Mitch!" He called from a makeshift Cybertronian sized table.

"I'm going to take it that what you all have there is high-grade."

"Wait... You know there's a difference?" Ratchet asked.

"... Wait, there's actually... Hmph. Figures that the Cybertronians would have their own version of alcohol."

"Hmph. I guess it could be said that it figures that the humans would have their own version of high-grade."

"True. Where's Fire?"

"Her room. She looked rather upset... And don't think I'm not going to make you do something to make up for not fixing the leak in the energon pump..."

"Dammit, I didn't mean for her... Gah, women..." I mumbled, heading towards her quarters. This was what happened with every girl I liked. I said something stupid, they got their feelings hurt and usually hated me for it for a bit. And by a bit I mean a while. As in several months.

"Femmes, Mitchel! Cybertronians have Mechs and Femmes, remember?"

"Yes, yes, I remember..." I said to the old medic, before rounding the corner and nearing her quarters. Then I heard her and Killshot talking in her room.

"What do you mean you- Oh... Right... Tripwire..."

"Yeah, Killshot, I'm worried he'll end up like Tripwire... That glitch... She took him from me..."

"Look, I know Airachnid did that... But I just..."

"You're her sparkmate! You just what?! Couldn't get her to-"

"Enough! I've said it once, I will say it again, and again, and as many times as necessary to get this through your thick helm! I am not responsible for her! The change between the beautiful young femme she was and this... sadistic **monstrosity** was so fast and subtle that I never knew... Not until Tailgate. And I'm glad Arcee hasn't linked me to the voice that tried to reason with Airachnid... If she ever found out..."

"What? She'd scrap you?! I'm about ready-"

I stormed into the room, pissed at what she was about to say. "Shut that shit up right this fucking minute, or I swear to God you will **never** get close to me. You make one more goddamn threat to a member of this team, and I'll rip your optics out and feed them to a goddamn scraplet! Have I made myself clear?!" I shouted, and I looked like I was ready to kill something, and I was certain my eye had turned red.

"Y-Yes..."

"And you, I've had it with the fucking secret keeping, tell me everything, or I tell Arcee that you're in league with some fucking 'bot that killed her old partner **and** sparkmate!"

"How do you know he was... I didn't even know he was her..."

"SPILL IT!"

"Fine, I was a minor level Con, but I was also a frontline grunt, I've seen my share of battles, and some of the stuff the Autobots did to our fallen was as bad as what we did to prisoners! I've seen fallen comrades be used as the equivalent of your 'sex dolls' and even some of us who were captured! And they get mad when we do the same?! I was one who never believed in that, I just wanted to fight for my cause, win the war, go home, live the rest of my life as a weapons merchant or something, but instead, I find out that the love of my life has been twisted into something horrible by Megatron, and..." He looked away, and I saw what had to be energon tears streaming from this mech's optics. "She... Was twisted around by him enough that he convinced her that our sparkling was an Autobot spy... What I saw when I finally got back to our home... Would have been more than enough to break a normal 'bot... Even one who wasn't related to the sparkling... That was the day I defected... But mark my words... If I can't convince Airachnid that she's done wrong... If I can't help her..." He continued, looking square at me. "Then I will **end** her."

I looked at him, and I couldn't help but feel pity for the mech in front of me. No father should have to see their child dead, and by the way he talked, especially not in the way _he_ saw. I looked down, and I cursed myself for making him tell me. Sure, I needed to know, but I didn't need to make him tell me.

I walked out, heading back to my quarters, not saying another word, which left both of them confused, and I put the punching bag back on its chain, pounding the hell out of it again until I felt my hands bleeding. I bandaged my hands and laid down on my cot, waiting for sleep to come. It took me a little bit before I noticed that all the bots had giant scratch marks on their armor, and it looked like something had been chewing on them. "I'm going to need a lot more armor polishing stuff to buff that out..." I mumbled as sleep took me.

 **Author's Note: So, Mitchel actually managed to avoid both the showdown with Skyquake and the Scraplet infestation (Arcee and Firewall went to the Arctic, I'll try to add some dialogue in the next chapter about how that went, but it's basically the same, struggle to survive, Killshot goes with Raf, gets gnawed on by scraplets a bit, Bulkhead screams like a girl repeatedly...**

Suddenly I heard a scream from the main hub, which shook me from slumber.

"Scraplet?!" I heard everyone ask.

"Spider!" I heard what had to be Miko shout before she ran down the corridor screaming 'Get it off!' and I chuckled before going back to sleep.

 **False alarm, now the chapter's over. I honestly feel like I did rather poorly in this chapter (as well as the previous one) mainly because it's... well I mean come on, I have no experience in drug deals so I actually have no idea how they go down (Not that I'd want to do any, to be honest.) That, and I added a pansy cop. One of my largest fears is actually corrupt cops, so I seem to stay as far away from anyone in a police uniform as possible, for no real reason, I just don't trust police officers, too many movies I guess. Well, temporarily I'll have a little more free time so I might be able to get the next chapter out sooner. And to my guest friend, I just now noticed the thing about you starting to hate Jack. I honestly kinda like him, but I think he needs much more refinement, he needs an image to be molded into (i.e. Optimus or Mitch) and I plan for Mitch to kind of view him as a younger brother, if that isn't obvious already from the last chapter or two ( I need to re-read my material) and he will actually be trained by Mitch at one point, if nothing else to increase his chances of survival against the Decepticons. (If you ask me, the episode where Airachnid is initially introduced is quite poor, as Jack would have died at least three times throughout that episode, if not more, and it pushed his luck extensively. No man (Not even Mitch) is or likely ever will be that lucky. Surviving 100-1 odds? I can see luck in that situation. Surviving a beach assault with machine gun fire ripping everything to shreds as you try to advance? I can see luck in that situation. But luck does NOT mean that you can outmaneuvre a giant arachnid autonomous robotic organism that is skilled at hunting things down by simply doubling back to her ship and somehow making her think that you went inside. Her audio receptors would be bumped up to where she would know that he wasn't inside the ship because she wouldn't hear his footsteps inside of said ship. And thus I have just made my writing the chapter involving Airachnid that much harder... I do hate myself sometimes. Anyway, until next time or someone sends me a PM wanting to know what I have planned or some such.**


	7. December 7, 2013, A Day Kept Secret

**Author's note: Okay, so this is a bit different, and I'm not sure how it will be preceived. Still, here's chapter 7. And to my guest friend, I know how you feel. I'll try (Emphasis on try) to include more of Miko and Raf (Despite how terrified I am when I do a line of dialogue for them, since Miko is straight up rebel and Raf doesn't seem very moldable like Jack seems to be. No, sorry ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't figured it out just yet, Jack isn't the main character of this story.**

It's been weeks or months since the events of what happened in Chicago and at the base, since then I've left the base for some alone time (By that, I mean away from giant robots alone, not away from people alone.) and somehow managed to get myself on this ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean- The _U.S.S. Arizona II_ , a new U.S. Navy project that created a battleship with nuclear attack capability. It can carry up to 20 Tomahawk missiles and still carry ammunition for the twelve 14-inch guns, the same caliber gun as the original _Arizona_ that was sunk in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1942. 'A day that will live in infamy.'

Luck would have it that it is December 7. 'Wonder if the _Arizona II_ will follow it's predecessor...' I thought, alarms going off just as I finished the thought, a whistle sounding over the comm.

"General quarters, general quarters, all hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill!" I heard over the comm system. Within seconds I was out of the quarters I was sharing with a couple sailors and was headed towards the top deck, going to one of the M2HB Browning .50 cal. machine guns that had been mounted on the side. I ejected a shell, the sound of gunfire all around me. 'Not a drill, not a drill, some dumbass just woke up the wrong battleship.'

Unlike it's predecessor, the _Arizona II_ had a large focus on not just surface-to-surface weaponry, but surface-to-air weaponry as well, including several Phalanx anti-missile systems. There were five times as many 3-inch AA guns as there were on the original ship, not to mention the .50 cal. machine guns. All of the weaponry was being fired at- "Oh no..."

The Decepticon ship was flying towards us, and I opened up on where I thought the bridge was, knowing any damage I'd do with the .50 would only be cosmetic at best. The Phalanx systems on the port side were blazing, spewing the most ungodly amount of lead towards the ship. Even the 5-inch guns were firing at it if they could get the angle to fire at it, neither them or the 3-inch AA guns making a dent in the armor. I abandoned the machine gun and headed towards the bridge of the _Arizona II_ , upon reaching there, the captain glanced at me and paid no regard.

"Captain, our weapons have no effect. The only things that will punch through will be the 14-inch cannons or the Tomahawks."

"Make due with what you have."

"Captain Fernell, I don't-"

"Corporal, you heard the captain, make due with what you have!" the XO spat.

"Commander Lyston, I would recommend you shut the fuck up before you find out what this Corporal can do in a confined space with nothing but his bare hands and a man's head. I was **not** talking to **you** , who has **never** fought anything like this, when **I've** seen it before."

"I'd watch your tongue, Corpor-" I punched the captain in the back of the head, hard enough that it knocked him out cold.

"Next?" I asked, the Master Chief Petty Officer laughing in the corner.

"About time someone put that jackass in his place."

"Corporal, when we make it back to the 'States, you will be court-"

I grabbed the Commander's head and slammed it into the wall, making sure not to use enough force that it would kill him.

"Who's the next highest ranking officer here?!"

"I am." A Lieutenant by the name of Pliskin said.

"You're in charge. Take my advice, use either the 14-inch guns or the Tomahawks, though I'm sure you don't want to use a nuke just yet."

"Thanks for the advice, Corporal. Master Chief, get on the comm and order the main cannons to get a firing solution on that ship and fire at will!"

"Aye-aye!" The man said, grabbing a phone that ran through the ship's comm system.

"Fourteen-inch cannons one through twelve, get a firing solution on the enemy, I say again, 14-inch one through twelve, get firing solution on the enemy, fire when ready."

I watched six barrels of this monstrous ship's main armament turn and aim at a high angle, all firing at once, pushing the ship to the starboard side. I watched the ship, seeing the explosions wreak havok on the ship's hull. "Lieutenant, I'd recommend going full steam ahead, turning 180 and returning to San Diego, that ship has firepower that far succeeds our own, and we don't want to be around when it brings that firepower to bear."

"At this point, I'm not entirely sure what to do, Corporal, so I'm going to go with your suggestion, Ensign, you heard the man, turn one-eight-zero to the port side and RTB."

"Aye-aye, sir!" the young-looking officer said, manning the helm and steering the ship around to get away from the hostile ship.

"Corporal, meet me in the captain's quarters, Master Chief, lock up the former captain and commander in the brig for recklessly endangering the crew." Pliskin ordered, and I saluted before heading to the captain's quarters.

I waited about ten minutes before the new 'Captain' came in, looking at me.

"Look, I don't know how, but you said you fought this thing before?"

"Not the ship, but those operating it, and the ones operating it could take out a whole division of tanks if not more before they fall. If they're that strong, how strong do you think that ship is?"

"Ship? You mean..."

"No time, get us back to San Diego and maybe I'll tell you."

"I talked to our radar operator, they aren't showing up anymore. It looks like we're in the clear."

"Do we have a line back to the mainland?"

"Yeah, why?"

"... I got a phone call I thought I'd never make..."

The Captain nodded, motioning to the phone on the desk. I grabbed the phone and punched in Jack's cellphone number.

"Jackson Darby speaking..."

"Hey little brother. I need you to get to Grayhound and tell the guys that I've run into our friends."

Grayhound was our code name for Optimus Prime.

"Got it, get to Grayhound, get the boys and girls ready for the dance... That it?"

"Yeah. See you in San Diego." I said before I hung up. I just gave Jack the order to inform Prime that I'd run into the 'Cons, and prepare them all for a fight. I also gave him which side of the 'States I was on.

"Care to let me in on the secret?"

"Yes. Yes I do. It's best as few people know what that thing was as possible. Tell them it was a new training target the Navy rigged up, whatever it takes to keep them blind."

"Blind of what?!"

I sighed, looking at him. "That there are aliens on Earth. Autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. Nobody can know. Those who do are under the Autobots' protection, and the Decepticons would kill them on sight."

"So... I take it that these Autobots are the good guys?"

"And the Decepticons are the bad guys. Right. What we found was the current Decepticon HQ, I'm hoping we crippled it enough that we can get away from it."

"Right. My lips are sealed, no reason to worry about it on my end."

"Good man." I said.

The rest of the ride back was uneventful, though we continued to watch the skies every time we could see. It took us five days and sleepless nights to return to San Diego harbor. When I got off the ship I found Jack waiting on the street, as well as a very angry woman in her thirties.

"Who are you and why did you contact my son?!"

I looked at her and then at Jack, then back to her. "Look lady, we've been watching sky for the past five days because of something that ran an attack pattern on us. No ID signature or anything, so I think before you start yelling, you should just give me a ride like Jack has no doubt asked for and let me calm down a bit before you start up again, because at the moment I'm tired as hell, hungry for something that actually tastes like food, and wanting to catch up as for what happened with the gang in the months I was gone, and overall I could kill just about anybody for any reason because I'm not in the mood to be fucking around, ma'am." I told her, adjusting my USMC baseball cap and looking her in the eye, the rings under my eyes apparently really dark judging by the gasp I got from her. "Now as for who I am, my name is Corporal Mitchel Daniels, United States Marine Corps." I said, extending a hand. She shakily accepted the handshake, finally calming down a bit.

"I... guess since we're both heading back the same way I may as well give you a ride..."

"Thank you, Ma'am." I said, following them to their car and getting in the back seat.

"Jack, why didn't you tell me you had a friend who was a Marine?"

"It... didn't cross my mind?"

I slipped into unconciousness after hearing that.

DREAM FLASHBACK

I was running, always running. If you walk, you get blown in half by a mortar shell, if you stop, you get gunned down, if you slow down even a little bit, you're risking your life, even in the tall trenches. I ran down a trench heading to a command bunker, not slowing even a little. Just as I was about to enter the bunker, an artillery shell exploded behind me, launching me into the wall and knocking me out. In what seemed like a split second later, I was inside a bunker, on a cot, some generals and high ranking officers squabbling about how to break the enemy lines.

"Do you bloody idiots ever shut up about your damned strategies? I swear, I'm starting to wish that shell did me in."

"Good to see you're alive, Mitchel." a general said.

"Like you'd want it any other way, General Maccarran."

"Did you get the letter?"

"Yes sir, should be right here..." I said, reaching into a pocket and finding a hole in the bottom. "Oh dear..." I mumbled, searching my other pockets, and finding it in the last pocket I had. "Here we are." I said as I handed the letter to the general.

PRESENT

I woke up slowly, trying to make sense of what was so damned important in that letter.

"I swear I'm going to have to talk to Ratchet to figure this stuff out..." I mumbled.

"Who's Ratchet?" Jack's mom asked.

"Er... Nobody, just a codename for a buddy." I said, my stomache growling loudly. "I could have swore I ate before I got off of that ship..."

"We can stop somewhere if you want-"

"No, don't mind me. Despite what I said earlier, I'm not that bad a guy, and I can wait a while before I eat..."

"Alright..."

It took a couple days to get back to Jasper because we didn't have a car that could pull an all nighter all on it's own (And it was late), so we had to stop at a motel before we started up again, continuing on to Jasper. And by the end of it I was questioned almost to death by this woman, who I learned her name was June. I was happy when I saw Fire waiting for me at the house, so when I got out of the car I immediately headed for her and started climbing in. "Thanks for the ride, ma'am." I called to June, ignoring her pleas for me to stay for a while.

"You know, when I left, I never thought I'd be coming back here this soon. Thanks for being here Fire... Can we please get back to the base?"

I could literally feel anger radiate from her as she hesitantly complied, and when we were out of earshot of any people she finally spoke. "Really?! You just up and left?! Do you have ANY idea what we've been going through?!"

"I do **not** need this shit... Look, working with giant robots is fun and all, but I still have a country to serve, and I needed some time away from you guys. It'd be pretty funny if I call someone a slagheap in the middle of a conversation, don't you think?"

"Right, and that's why you called Jack instead of me or Killshot-"

"Leave my brother out of this, he's got enough on his plate."

"Your brother?"

"He's close enough, alright? Look, I'm sorry I just got up and left, but we both needed time, if nothing else then for what to make of the whole 'giant robot having a crush on a human' thing."

"Uh-huh. You didn't think about it at all, did you?"

"Not really. Here and there, when I wasn't worried about being blown out of the ocean by the Decepticon ship I reported..."

"Right, the same ship we found no trace of. Mitch, you're-"

"The fuck?! What do you mean you found no fucking trace of it?! We hit the fucker with at least six 14-inch shells, armor fell off of the bastard, what do you mean there's no god-damn trace of it?!"

"Mitch, I'm not saying it didn't happen, but the lack of proof leads us to believe..."

"I know what I saw." I said, remembering what I saw as I looked across the water when I manned the M2HB. There was an aircraft carrier in the distance, split in half, slowly sinking, the destroyer escorts it had getting mowed down by blaster fire from the Decepticon ship, which was turning towards us.

"I'm not-"

"Enough! Enough with the fucking 'I'm not saying' shit, that bastard destroyed a goddamned aircraft carrier and it's escort ships, I am NOT about to think that didn't happen when I saw it happen with my own eyes! And by all means, do enlighten me on what the hell happened while I was gone."

"Alright, one of Bulkhead's buddies came to visit, come to find out it was actually a 'Con in disguise, trying to give them the location of our base, we destroyed an energon harvester that the 'Cons dug up and used on Bulkhead, and, oh yeah, your little bro decided to get in a street race using Bumblebee!" She spat, and I laughed.

"Did he win?"

"NO!"

"Damn. What got it started?"

"You're never going to guess."

"With him being 16 and having Arcee around, I don't think it's money so... Oh God... If he was trying to impress some girl, I'm going to have his hide nailed to the door of my room back at the base..."

"Get your skinning kit."

"Get him on the line... **Now.** "

I felt Firewall shake for an instant, apparently shocked with how forceful I was about it just in speech. I grabbed a headset and heard Jack pick up the phone.

"Jackson Darby, your ass is glass, do you hear me?!"

"Woah, Mitch, what happened between the time you got back to now?"

"I learned of your little race. One, you didn't win. Two, and this is the biggest one, **you did it to impress a** _ **girl**_. **Use. Your.** _ **Brain.**_ If she's got you wound that tightly around her little fucking finger, then we have a serious problem here, bud. Prioritize. School first, team second, girls third, and that's if they aren't what I'm afraid this one is. Who does she hang around with?!"

"Uh... Vince..."

"And what does this Vince do?"

"Er... Bully me..."

"Jack... Little brother... put your mother on the phone... ASAP..."

I heard some commotion before I heard June answer. "Hello?"

"Hello ma'am, this is Corporal Daniels, your son just informed me of a bit of a big issue that I want to take care of. I requested to talk to you so I could request to be allowed to put him through a bit of a... 'vacation' shall we call it, though I'm sure your definition of vacation and mine differ substantially."

"Oh? And what is this 'vacation' you're planning?"

"A three month long Marine training course, everything from just general PT, to hand-to-hand, to bayonet combat. I'll supply everything, he just needs to bring his person and the clothes on his back. If nothing else, it'll teach him discipline and how to defend himself. If he suffers any injuries, I will accept full responsibility."

"Hmm... How much will this cost?"

"Free of charge, given the nature of the issue. I need a refresher on the basics anyway, so I'll be running through it with him."

"No changes of clothes?"

"He'll be assigned a series of uniforms, one for each type of environment I intend to have him train in, and three changes of PT clothes."

"This is starting to sound expensive, are you sure-"

"Ma'am, your son is like a brother to me, and I lost the first person who was ever that close in Afghanistan a few months back. If I think he needs to learn, and you're willing to let me teach him, I'll spare no expense, you don't even need to be concerned. Though I'm sure he's going to find the MRE's interesting to say the least."

"Well... Alright, I guess it can't hurt... too much..."

"What did you just agree to?!" I heard Jack ask.

"I'll be there in a bit. Ask him if he wants to keep his hair."

I heard her ask him right after that as I told Firewall to head back.

"OF COURSE I WANT TO KEEP MY HAIR!"

"I'll be sure to grab a box on my way back." I said, getting a chuckle before we said our goodbyes and the line went dead. I took off the headset and heard Firewall laughing her metal ass off, not able to believe what I just did. "What?"

"Jack is going to be so fragging angry at you..."

"Dumbass should have known I'd have found out sooner or later."

"I thought he was your brother, now you're calling him a dumbass."

"Just because he's my brother doesn't mean he isn't a dumbass. Fucking... Look, I put up with this shit in high school, I know what happens. I was never good enough for the girl, and when I was, I knew what kind of person she was, so she wasn't good enough for me. I don't want Jack making the same mistakes I did."

"Uh-huh... Such as?"

"Letting some dweeble-dick motherfucker pick on you when you can knock that sorry son of a bitch back into his place: The bottom of the fucking totem pole. I finally got tired of it and knocked the hell out of him. Last day of senior year, best memory I have. The look on his face... Priceless. All this pacifist bullshit in this country and even the teachers and security personnel were telling me to beat his ass, and that I did. Butch MacGregor. Meanest son of a bitch I knew, and I took as many punches as I threw. Difference was I hit a whole helluva lot harder. And the little bitch was using a pair of knucks... fucking brass knuckles and I whipped his ass with bare fists. Coulda swore he would have waved just like the other flags on the flagpole if someone put him on the line."

"That's... wow."

"Yeah... Let's go get this idiot."

 **Author's Note: So... not much to say here. Reviews, tell me what you think, what I could improve, etc. Oh, and I'm going to spare no verbal demeaning during the little section where I have Mitch training him with the weapons at the end of the three month thing. Trust me, stuff has happened during this time, I'm working on the details of what the team's fought (And this WILL be out of order, as I'm having Convoy happen after Predatory. OOPS spoilers.)**


	8. Hunted

**Author's Note: Here we are, chapter eight. This time I didn't use the method I did with the crap-tastic startup of this, which was have Mitch end up getting tortured. Anyway, here's Chap 8. I'm hoping this is a good chapter.**

 **WARNING: RACIST REMARKS PRESENT, SECTION WILL BE MARKED IN A BOLD X TO SIGNIFY THE BEGINNING AND ANOTHER TO SIGNIFY THE END OF ANY SECTIONS WITH RACIST REMARKS**

So here we are, three months later and I came to find out that being in a Drill Sergeant's place is **fun**. For me, anyway. Jack isn't exactly happy that his mother agreed to this, and I know why. I had Arcee hold him down and I asked him if he wanted to keep his hair, he said yes, and I put a box under his head and started shearing that mess off of him, then I gave him the box full of hair. The look on his face... One thing's for sure, he can take a lot more than he could before.

"Come on, you son of a bitch, strike harder! The enemy would attack you with all the strength he has, if you don't do the same you're that closer to death in a fight, you want to make sure the bastard's dead!" I yelled at him, watching him stab a training dummy repeatedly with a bayonet. "No, you jackass, what did I show you?!" I shouted, grabbing the rifle, backing up about ten yards, and sprinting at the target, stopping just short and stabbing the target with as much force as I could, pulling the bayonet out and rifle butting it, then slashing it with the bayonet before stabbing it again. I tossed the rifle to Jack afterwards. "Do it."

He went back as far as I did and repeated the movements, almost perfectly. "Again." I said, and I repeated that when he got done, and this repeated for a good thirty minutes. "Stop."

"This isn't fair..."

 **X**

"Fair?" I asked, laughing. "Fucking fair?! How's this for fair, I don't care if you were any other race, quoting my own drill sergeant 'I do not care if you are a nigger, slant-eye, or cracker, I do not care if you are a greaser or some other mamby-pamby bullshit, you are in my world now, and in my world you are all equally worthless until proven otherwise.' If you were black, you would get the same treatment. If you were asian, you would get the same treatment. If you were hispanic, you would get the same fucking treatment, do you understand me?!"

 **X**

"Aye sir!"

I heard Ratchet through the radio I had with me. "Mitchel, do you copy?"

I grabbed the radio and responded. "Affirmative, what do you need, Ratchet?"

"New mission, let's see how Jack's doing after the survival training you put him through."

"What is it, first off?"

"Possibly hostile environment investigating a new energon signature. Forest environment, if I'm not mistaken."

"Come on, doc, give me something to really push him."

"This will have to do. Optimus is eager to see how you two do. Arcee will be accompanying you."

I heard Killshot immediately butt-in on the conversation. "I fear a certain someone from my past is here as well, though I don't know where, this energon signature could be hers. Keep your wits about you."

"Right. We'll be ready. Jack, get the LAWs, three each, stock up on grenades for your M203. I'm using this ugly bastard..." I said, looking at some old Soviet anti-tank rifle from the 'Great Patriotic War' as the Russians call World War 2. "Send us a groundbridge, we'll be there shortly. Miko and Raf there?"

I heard Ratchet scoff. "Of course Miko's here... Raf is playing video games with Bumblebee."

"Tell them to take a look at the passenger..." I said with a chuckle before I got everything loaded into the old US Army Studebaker from the 1940s. I climbed in and saw Jack was in the passenger seat before I turned on the engine and rolled through the groundbridge that opened in front of us. When we got out, Miko shrieked.

"What the hell did you do to Jack?!" She demanded.

"Make him grow a pair..." I mumbled. "You'll see when school comes around. And his homework's been taken care of, I made sure to have the teachers know that he was under a special temporary draft that would last three months, so they won't slam him with a bunch of F's. If they do, I'll come down on them like a ton of bricks. And watch your mouth, you're only what, fifteen? I'm nineteen, I can say these things, you can't yet. Wait another three years." I told her with a chuckle.

"And you did this without any authorization from the Pentagon?!"

"Goddammit why is this fucker here?" I mumbled. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm still officially MIA as far as the Pentagon gives a flying fuck in a hurricane, so stuff the rules and regulations."

"Look son-"

I drew my Beretta and pressed it against his forehead and backed him up to the wall. "I. Am. Not. **Your.** _ **Son.**_ Is that clear?!" I demanded, pissed at him trying to call me 'son'.

"Crystal." He said, before I was thrown to the ground by someone behind me. I recovered by rolling backwards and stopping in a crouch to see Jack standing between me and Agent Fowler, set in a fighting stance. I grinned.

"Really little brother... You don't have anything on me." I said, getting up, holstering my pistol, and adopting my own stance, a smirk plastered on my face. I motioned for him to make the first move, and he charged at me, to which I sidestepped him and punched him in the gut, everyone, even the 'Bots (Aside from Optimus) forming a circle around us, and Jack tried to sweep my feet out from under me with his leg before getting up and attempting a right hook, both of which failed miserably as I jumped over the sweep and blocked the hook, attempting to kick him in the knee, not going easy on him at all. What happened next took me by surprise as he grabbed my leg with his free hand and forced me to the ground by moving forwards whilst grasping my leg.

"Get him Jack!" "Give him hell, Mitch!" I heard the sisters cheering.

"You got it." We both said in unison, and I kicked him in the groin with my free leg, causing him to fall to his knees.

"CHEAP SHOT!" Miko shouted.

"All's fair in wa- AGH!" I was hit in the exact same spot, and I fell to one knee, face to face with Jack, and, as I probably should have predicted, we both drew back for a headbutt and ended up colliding skull against skull, and I was barely able to stay concious while Jack was knocked out, not having done near as many headbutts as I have to know how to handle that kind of collision.

"WOO! MITCH!" I heard Fire shout and I thought my head was going to explode. I grabbed my head in pain which pretty much told everyone that didn't end too well. "Mitch?"

I waved her off, signaling that I'd be fine. "Check on Jack..." I mumbled just loud enough for them to hear, my head feeling like it had just been hit by a freight train.

"He'll be fine, he's got just as hard a head as you do, Mitch." Arcee said. I grabbed a bottle from one of my BDU pockets and downed a couple painkillers, afterwards grabbing my canteen and dumping water on Jack, which woke him up pretty quickly, and I tossed him a couple of the painkillers.

"It'll make that damned headache go away, at the least." I said, noticing he was looking at me like I was a lunatic. "It's over the counter shit, you can get it at any pharmacy without a prescription. Pretty cheap too, last I saw. Let's get going." I said, grabbing my PTRS-41 and tossing Jack his M16, and I picked up a trio of LAW rockets, strapping them to me.

"You sure? After the way you acted just then..."

"Yes Arcee, I'm sure. Don't worry, even after that, no matter how bad the conflict, brothers in arms are brothers for life... plus, like you said, hard heads."

"Well, alright. C'mon then." She said, and we followed her through the groundbridge that Ratchet had changed the coordinates of. We came out in a wooded area for sure, but all the trees were dead. Arcee took out some kind of scanner and started walking, and we followed her.

"I don't like the look of this place... Keep your eyes open..." I said, feeling uneasy about the area. "Where is this place?"

"Somewhere called the Sokrovenno Forest in Russia."

"Heh... guess me bringing this ugly bastard is appropriate..." I mumbled, seeing something move in the distance. "Eyes open, movement at your 10:00. Split up, Arcee, take Jack with you, I'm going towards what I saw... You hear any shots, you take Jack and get him as far away from here as possible, got it?"

"Aye-aye..." She said almost mockingly.

"I mean it. He gets hurt, I'll rip your optics out and make you eat them."

"Do I not get a say here?" Jack asked.

"No." Me and Arcee said at the same time.

I started heading off towards the last place I saw movement, Arcee continuing on her way towards what she found on her scanners. When I reached my objective, the tracks I saw were what I could only imagine a giant spider's would look like, and I started to get a feeling of dread inside. "Airachnid... Arachnid... Oh shit..." I mumbled, firing a shot in the air and dropping the AT rifle, running towards the pair.

'The rifle will only slow me down.' I thought, starting to ditch equipment. I slipped my backpack off, then I ditched my helmet, then my vest, keeping the LAWs I had as well as my Beretta. "IT'S AIRACHNID, GET HIM THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" I shouted, knowing I wouldn't be able to make it to them if the 'bot in question was hot on my tail. I suddenly went into a flashback.

FLASHBACK

 **X**

"Goddamn Japs!" I yelled, stuck running from what had to be a platoon of Japanese, running through the jungle on some island out in the middle of the Pacific. Bullets were flying all around me, and I ended up falling in a hole. I heard some shouting in Japanese next to me and I grabbed the neck of the man I landed on, placing both hands on his neck and strangling him until he was dead, then I tried to find the wooden top to the spider hole I apparently found, and when I did I pulled it over the top, waiting for the Japanese troops to go past.

 **X**

PRESENT

I was still running, coming up on a crevice. "Shit!" I said, jumping as I reached the edge, grabbing a ledge a few feet from the top of the other side. I started climbing up, narrowly avoiding webbing that the spiderbot must have shot at me. When I reached the other side I almost ran into the faceplate of a femme. 'Shit... purple? Definitely NOT an autobot...' I thought, almost missing what she said.

"Well, if you aren't a slick one. But unfortunately, all games must come to an end, human."

"Right, right, 'games.' Is that what it was with your sparkling?" I asked, then taking advantage of the shock I caused to start running again, heading past her and rounding a bend.

"How do you know?!" She demanded, now chasing me with that much more determination.

"Me and my big fucking mouth..." I mumbled, continuing to run, ducking as webbing got shot at me, then I noticed something off to my left. 'Shit, she got Arcee... But where's Jack?!' I thought, continuing to run, seeing Arcee turn into her motorcycle form, which indicated Jack was still alive, judging by her protectiveness of him. Then I looked ahead and saw a camouflaged figure up ahead. "DITCH YOUR GEAR, DUMBASS!" I shouted, running that much faster, knowing Jack hadn't taken off at least his gear.

"Who's your friend back here, Jack?!"

"DO NOT ANSWER THAT! KEEP RUNNING!" I yelled, Arcee speeding up and keeping speed with me.

"Get on!"

I jumped onto the 'bot and held on tight as she took off, and I could hear Airachnid growling as she shot a web that pinned the two of us to a tree, crushing my left leg.

"SON OF A FUCKSTICK!" I yelled after my roar of pain. "Goddamn Decepticon piece of fucking... I WILL HAVE YOUR HELM MOUNTED ON MY WALL FOR THIS YOU BITCH!"

I heard Airachnid laugh and saw her come close, and she placed a sharp finger near my neck.

"And of course that's actually what I had planned for you, human."

"Leave him alone, you giant piece of scrap!" I heard Jack yell, just before a rocket hit her center mass, launching her back into the forest.

I saw Jack pull out a machete that he had attached to his vest and start hacking at the webbing. "Jack, you're wasting time, Arcee can get us out of this, you need to run, NOW."

"I can't get us out of this without crushing you when I transform!"

"Partners don't ditch partners!" Jack yelled.

"When will you get this through your head, you aren't my partner, you're a liability on the field!"

"I don't believe that!"

"I don't care what anyone believes right now, the fucking spider is coming back!"

"Just wait, I got a surprise for her."

"Oh really? And what might this surprise for me be, Jack?" Airachnid asked, coming into view just as Jack got me and Arcee free.

"This." He said, pulling out a detonator and pushing the button, a ball of flame following a giant explosion to my right, about half a mile away.

"MY SHIP!"

"Get your crazy ass on Arcee NOW!" I ordered, and as he did so Arcee started to speed off, continuing as Airachnid began chasing us. I tried to keep my grip on the handles but ultimately couldn't, starting to slide off of Arcee.

"Mitch!"

"GO! I'll hold her off as long as I can!" I said, bringing one of the LAWs I had with me to bear. I fired it at the spiderbot as she approached, hitting her in the chest region and knocking her back, a groundbridge opening up about 100 to 200 feet behind me, the whole team coming through, Arcee coming back without Jack, and I fired another rocket at the spiderbot, then firing the last one before half crawling and half dragging myself towards the team that was running up to me. I drew my Beretta and fired pot shots at the 'Con, knowing it was only cosmetic damage that I'd deal at the most unless I hit an optic, then I saw Firewall show up in front of me, no blaster fire or anything going on as a space was made in front of the group, Killshot stepping forward through the space.

"Killshot...?" Airachnid said, almost in disbelief.

"Yes, it's me."

"You... defected...?

"And you left the Decepticons to go solo. Or did you? A better question is, how many times did Megatron interface with you?!"

"W-What?"

"You heard me... For you to do his bidding so blindly, to turn into the sadistic monster you have become, for you to **kill our** _ **sparkling**_ , you must have really loved him more than your own sparkmate..."

"So that's how the human knew... You told him..."

"Yes, I did. And I think it's time Arcee put two and two together. I'm the one that tried to keep Tailgate alive... And failed, and now the time has come... Turn away from this path and come with us... Or I rip out your spark with my bare hands." He said, his hands turning into blasters and aiming at Airachnid. "And you know I don't miss, so don't even think you have a chance of surviving."

I watched as the spiderbot looked down, then at Killshot, then feigned a dodge to the right before jumping to the left and tunneling away, Killshot not completely falling for the trick as he had fired in both directions she had to dodge in, one of the blasts hitting her in the stomach region.

"Very well... You've made your choice." He spat, hatred lacing every word he said. "The next time I see you, you will die, I swear this upon the Allspark, Airachnid..."

I tried getting to my feet, falling to the ground due to the crushed leg. "Goddammit..." I mumbled, fully aware that now I wouldn't be able to walk ever again, since Arcee, even in her motorcycle form, weighed at least 10 times that of a normal motorcycle, so any bone that was in my leg was more than just simply 'shattered'. It was more along the lines of a fine powder. I groaned as Firewall picked me up and carried me through the groundbridge, setting me in the chair on the second level corner, and I took another couple of painkillers from the bottle in my pocket.

"You alright, Mitch?"

"... No." I said, tears starting to well up in my eyes as realization finally hit me.

"What's wrong?" Miko asked, walking over, none of the team having ever seen me cry, Agent Fowler daring to come close.

"God-damn piece of shit mother fucking Decepticon BITCH!" I roared. "Fucking bitch cost me my leg..." I said, tears finally streaming. "One Goddamn 'Con... I swear... I will have her helm mounted on my wall for this..." I growled, the malice in my voice making Raf shake. "Ratchet... Patchkit... I don't give a flying fuck if the Goddamned chassis turns me into a fucking toaster, get it built, I'll have Airachnid's helm for this..."

"Then I believe there is a contest. You, Arcee, Firewall and myself now want her dead."

"Add me in to that list." Ratchet growled.

"Scrap... I didn't think the old 'bot had it left in him to have a grudge like that..." Firewall mumbled.

"More importantly, sis, is why?"

"She crippled one of my closest friends, I fully intend to rip her optics out for that."

"Look, old-timer, I don't think you're as young as you think you-"

"OLD-TIMER?! DO YOU SEE ANY RUST ON ME, KILLSHOT?!"

"N-no, but-"

"But nothing! Even in my age, I am just as nimble as the rest of you, I just need more time on the field, but mark my words, I **will** kill Airachnid for what she has done to Mitchel."

"Look, doc, I know you view me like a son and all, but I think I can handle this one-"

"Ep ep ep, I mean it!"

I sighed, looking down, knowing the pain would never truly go away. All I could do now, was wait.

 **Author's Note: So... there's Chapter 8. To me, the term 'Jap' isn't that racist, it's more of a shortening of 'Japanese', but I know it is viewed differently, and I know some people that view 'Jap' as racist, so just to be safe I marked that section with the X. Reviews, tell me something I can do to make the story better, tell me what you liked, what you didn't like (POLITELY, please.) etc. Next chapter will be a bit dull, as it's just going to cover Mitch getting used to the combat chassis and whatnot. I don't like being secretive so I'll say right now that I plan on Mitch having multiple vehicular forms and his blasters will actually not be like that of a normal bot, they'll have individual bayonets on them and be longer than the typical Cybertronian arm-blaster. Another yard in length or so. Plus, Airachnid didn't actually go with 'You'll have to kill me' since I have plans for her. Though this is one I'm still not sure on myself so you'll have to wait until later for more info. Also, the flashback was also his great grandfather, but when he wasn't in the Great War, this was during WW2 and his whole unit was wiped out, and he was left running for his life. It was meant to give some more survival experience for Mitch that he didn't grasp this time (plus it wouldn't have mattered, as Airachnid's senses would have been set to 11.)**


	9. Damned Drone

**Author's note: Sorry guys! I've got a ton of crap laid on me in the past few months so I haven't been able to work on this very much. Also, got a surprise in the flashback for my guest friend. Sorry if this is a bit all over the place but I'm trying while attempting to keep up with the crap I have to deal with outside of writing... typing... whatever. Read, review, etc.**

"It's your fault, Mitch." My blood froze upon hearing this. I looked to my right and found myself staring at Frankie, a bullet hole plainly visible on his head.

"You died, Frankie... I didn't know there would be a sniper, there's no way I could have..."

"It's your fault." I saw Anderson next to Frankie, then Ramirez, their wounds as visible as Frankie's

"Leave me alone... Leave me the fuck alone, you're dead, you're all dead and there's nothing that can bring you back!" I yelled, pulling my M9 and firing at Anderson and Ramirez, then my grip tightened as I set my sights on Frankie. "Don't make me shoot you, Frank... Don't make me-

Suddenly I was on the ground, my eyes clenched tight. I opened them to find Jack staring at me like I was a madman. "W-What happened?" I asked, shaken from seeing my fallen comrades.

"What the fuck do you think happened?! You just tried to kill us!"

"I... I what?"

"You shot at us! Seriously, what the hell?!"

"Jackson, I believe that Mitchel has suffered from another flashback."

"And that gives him an excuse to nearly kill Miko and Raf?!"

I looked around and saw the two taking cover behind the couch, their heads poking out from the sides. I sighed and closed my eyes, cursing myself for putting them in danger. I clenched my fist and forced Jack off of me, deciding to just lay there. "Optimus, I've been meaning to ask, which one of you was in that thing in Afghanistan?"

"I do not understand, what 'thing' are you referring to?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say it was some kind of escape pod. I saw something get out of it before I... I guess I passed out... Next thing I knew, I woke up on the medical bed."

"Hmm... The one who brought you here was Firewall. Did the size of what got out of it match her outline?"

"No. Not even close."

FLASHBACK: 10 JUNE, 2013. FOURTH DAY AT BASE

There was a weird tingling all over my body as I woke up. When I looked down, I saw my body enveloped in some gray machine-like bugs, crawling all over my body. I blinked as I flew into a sitting position, the machines having disappeared, and the tingling having stopped. I felt strange, more energetic than usual, more alert, as if I was aware something was hunting me. I made my now-usual patrol around the base, not finding anything, and when I looked at my watch, I saw it was 3:00 A.M. (My watch wasn't exactly new, it was more of an antique. Camouflage with a velcro connector that went over the watch itself to cover it, and another to keep it on your wrist. Thing had to be wound-up every couple of days, and I was certain that it wasn't 3:00 P.M.) I returned to my bunk, sighing as I laid back down, clutching an M16 close, ready for something to go to hell.

PRESENT

"Son of a bitch! I know what was in it!"

"What?" Raf asks, still hiding behind the couch.

"Nanomachines. Millions of nanomachines. Ratchet, I need you to do a scan to confirm my suspicions."

"Alright..." He said, taking a scanner and doing a quick scan. "By the Allspark..."

"What's up?" Firewall asks, finally making her way into the room. It had been a couple hours since I had gotten in the chair so she was off in some other part of the base, probably never having heard the shots.

"Mitchel... is more machine than man."

"Hold on, what?" I ask, not certain of what he's trying to say.

"The nanomachines are slowly turning your human biology into that of a Cybertronian. The moment your leg was crushed, it was the nanomachines' focus point, it is now almost completely metal. They've been focusing on your bones, slowly turning them into metal, eventually, they'll move onto muscles, organs, until you're a human-sized Cybertronian."

"Ratchet, that's preposterous." Patchkit tells him.

"You don't believe me? Check the scan for yourself."

I try and get up, and the pain is immense, but I manage to do so. Slowly, I take a step, and I hear a metal _clunk_ when my foot lands. I take another step, and another, hearing the same _clunk_ sound as my left foot landed on the ground.

"So, you now realize that we are here, and not an imagining."

"Who are you?!" I demand, diving for my M9, which was knocked across the floor when Jack tackled me.

"We are you, and you are us." The voice says, and I reach the M9 and start aiming around the room, holding up a fist to signal I'm not stuck in another flashback, which stops Jack from tackling me again.

"Mitchel, who are you talking to?" Optimus asks me.

"What are you?"

"We are the nanomachines that you were referring to." The voice says.

"So what, I call you Legion?"

"No, we, as a collective, including you, are to be called Legion."

"Not gonna happen. You're now Neo. Got it?"

"Very well, you are the command program."

"Mitch, what's going on?" Firewall asks me.

"Having a rather strange conversation with myself here. The nanomachines are talking to me."

"Just... give me some time alone, I need to sort this out..." I continue, heading down the stairs (and nearly falling due to the pain in the leg from it not being fully metal-ized yet) and heading to my room. Once inside I end up going into a flashback.

FLASHBACK: GREAT WAR

"Mitchel, this weapon could mean we could wipe out these aliens from our-"

"Sir, the Autobots are not-"

"They are no different! They deal as much damage as-"

"Sir, you're going to have to kill me if you want to stop me from reporting this to Tailgate." I said, turning around and going to walk out when I heard the hammer of a Webster mk IV being cocked. "You bloody stupid bastard..." I mumble, turning around to look at him. I see General Maccarran with an arm extended, the revolver pointed at me. I grab the barrel and press it to my forehead. "For your sake, don't fucking miss, General. Because if you do, you are a dead man, mark my words."

PRESENT

My head snapped towards my mirror, now fogged up with the words 'TELL THEM' wrote on it, as though someone took their finger and drew them in the fog. I blinked and it was gone. "This is getting too fuckin' weird..." I mumble to myself as I go towards my cot, finally getting accustomed to the clunking of my foot. I sigh, looking at my cot. "May as well get some sleep..." I said to myself, laying down on the cot before slipping away a little bit too quickly.

"... What's up Fire?" I asked the olive-colored femme.

"My armor got a little banged up on the last mission, think you can help me out with that?"

"Sure, why not." I told her, something feeling off. I turned around and heard the sound of metal piercing metal and Fire gasp. I spun around and saw something I had hoped I'd never see. There was a blade protruding from Fire's torso, one I immediately recognized before I saw the gunmetal gray figure behind her. "You son of a bitch... You son of a _fucking_ _ **BITCH!"**_ I yelled, grabbing a nearby LAW and aiming, seeing Fire fall to the floor and none other than Megatron advancing on me. "Fry you fuck..." I muttered, before firing at his head, only for him to sidestep the rocket just as I pulled the trigger. The rocket exploded above the main exit, causing it to collapse, sealing one of the only two ways out. I heard the 'bots coming, but at the moment it was still me against this ugly bastard. I grabbed another LAW and fired it point blank as he tried to grab me, causing him to step back somewhat, and I took off down a corridor.

'I need a bigger weapon, I need to find a way out...' I thought, running the entire time. I heard weapons fire behind me, the team no doubt getting ripped to shreds if the sound was any sign to go by. I kept running, checking the storage rooms for anything that would help me either kill Megatron or escape the base to enact my revenge at a later date.

"LAWs, LAWS, Stingers... Javelins! Finally, something that might put a dent in him..."

"Is that so, pest?"

I flew into a sitting position, my hand gripping my Beretta tightly. I climbed out of bed and ran into the main hub, everyone looking at me like I was crazy.

"Mitch? What's wrong?" Fire asked.

"What's wrong? What's fucking wrong is that you all just got killed..." I said, gripping my head with my free hand. "That was all too real..."

"What was?" Ratchet asked.

"Nightmare. Really bad one." I said, shaking my head. "Fucking Megatron... Jesus Christ I thought that was real... I could have swore you guys were dead..." I mumbled, starting to walk off, only for Firewall to step in front of me, shaking her head. I heard Killshot try and hold a laugh back over in the corner where he was trying to upgrade his armor.

"Mitch, I know when you're lying. C'mon, let's go for a ride." Fire said, turning into her alt mode, and I climbed in, then the pain in my leg finally set in.

"Damn, over-exerted myself when I ran to get in here..." I mumbled as she took off out of the base.

We kept moving for a while before she finally spoke. "Mitch, we need to talk."

"About?"

"What do you mean, about? What in the name of Cybertron happened?"

I just shook my head. "Look, Fire..."

"No, you look, Mitch! I can't lose you, do you understand?! This is the first time in over a hundred years I've let myself get close to someone who isn't family..."

"Stop the tank." I told her. 'Did she just...?' I thought.

She came to a stop and I climbed out. Thankfully we were out in the middle of no-where. "Fire, I need to look in your eyes when I say this."

She transformed and I just stared at her blue optics. "What, Mitch?"

"Look, Fire..." I started, putting a hand to my head, trying to think. "I know your last partner was killed by Airachnid. And that you were more than just partners. I'm human. I'm a fuckin' crazy human since I'm willing to go into battle with you guys, and I can't help but find myself attracted to you. Look, Fire, I'm willing to go so far as to say I'm in love with you, but right now we have more important things to deal with. We're still technically neck deep in a foxhole because the 'Cons are still around, and this war probably isn't going to end until long after I'm dead and gone. Megatron's dead, big fucking whoop, Starscream or one of the other fuckheads has taken over, they're still a threat. I know how you feel about me, and I'm not saying 'no' if you're asking. What I'm saying is that this is one thing where I have little experience in. One does not simply ask a giant, robot-like lifeform 'Hey, will you be my girlfriend?' So yeah, I'm in a bit of a rut as for what to do when it comes to this. But look, you're not going to lose me anytime soon. Besides, I held my own against Airachnid for a little bit with a bum leg, I think I could manage once these... things... finish doing their thing."

"WARNING! Decepticon signal approaching!" I heard Neo spit out a warning.

"Company!" I shouted, scanning the horizon, seeing a squadron of Decepticon flyers coming at us. "2:00 high!" I yelled to Firewall, who had her blasters out. She turned and started spraying shots at them, making a wall of plasma that almost nothing could get through. One fell, two, three, and another five kept coming. "We need to get out of here!" I shouted above the blaster fire and climbed up and in once she transformed, and she accelerated to top speed and I manned the .50 that she decided to keep on top, and started shooting dead at the flyers.

I don't know why I keep up the futile efforts of trying to kill them with human weaponry, but I gave up and dropped back inside, sealing the hatch, and grabbed a headset. "Check, check, this is Spectre, need assistance, I say again, need assis- AGH! Fuck!" I shouted, ripping the headset off as a screeching noise came over the radio. "Fucking asshats! Gotta use a jammer to try and separate us?! Fire, brake hard and full reverse, let's give these fuckheads a show!" I growled, knowing the turret was already turned around.

As she complied I started giving firing orders, having re-opened the hatch to get a line of sight on the flyers. "Fifteen degrees up, seven to the right, fire when ready!" Not even a second later the cannon went off, and an explosion sounded. 'One down, four to go.'

"Brake, full forward, turn thirty degrees to your right. Aim seven degrees down, fifteen to the left, fire when ready!" Another shot, another two destroyed flyer, as the one that was hit collided with a second, causing them both to crash and explode.

"Brake, full reverse, fifty degrees to your left, aim twenty-seven to-" I got hit in the shoulder by a blaster shot and let out a pained roar. "Fuck this, my turn asshole!" I spat, taking manual control of the gun and finding the two flyers that were left. I pulled my bootknife and set the fuse on the shell manually, and fired, causing the shell to explode between the two and destroy them both. I stuck my head out of the hatch and flipped off the raining pieces of metal. "Fuck you, asshole!" I shouted, then turned my attention to the large burn inside the tank from the blaster shot. "Fire, you alright?"

"Nothing that you can't fix." She told me, I just nodded.

"We need to get the hell out of here, let's head back to base... Hmm... they wouldn't send just one detatchment just to try and wipe us out... Goddammit we can't go back. We're being watched." I stated, knowing all-too-well what was going on. I grabbed a rifle from the inside and put a scope on, and started scanning the sky. It didn't take long for me to find what I was looking for- Laserbeak, Soundwave's drone, the same asshole from the radiotelescope array (I figured out his name after describing him to Ratchet). "Soundwave's got his eye on us. Sorry, but I don't like having the goddamn evil eye watching me from Mount Doom." I said, firing a shot, and hitting the drone, letting him know that I knew his toy was there. Next thing I knew, there was blaster fire galore heading towards it, and then I saw the form of Killshot flying head-on at the drone in his alt-mode. Ultimately, he shot down Laserbeak, and he came flying in low and transformed in front of us as we stopped. I climbed out and Fire transformed, the rest of the team showing up not far behind.

"Mitch? What's the problem?" Arcee asked.

"The problem? The problem is that." Killshot said, pointing at the now mangled form of Laserbeak.

"Is that...?" Ratchet started, only to get cut off by Killshot.

"Yeah, it's Laserbeak. 'Cons are after our base. And from the look of it, I'd say they sent a squadron of eight flyers to try and make it seem reasonable that they 'tried' to take down Firewall. I don't think they counted on Mitch being here..."

I sighed, not wanting to get any praise from this. "Look, they came, they died, we shot down an asshole's drone, we need to get the hell out of dodge before they send the whole damn crew of that ship after us." I said, looking up at Fire, and she nodded her agreement, transforming into her alt-mode, and I climbed in, trying to relax in the commander's seat, which was difficult to do, considering that it's not exactly spacious in a tank, only having just enough room to do so. I didn't even bother with painkillers for the wound on my shoulder, just trying to get some sleep, which slowly, I managed to nod off.

 **Author's note: There's chapter 9 Again, sorry for the wait for those of you who like the story. Reviews, please, main thing that kept me coming back and writing/typing over these past months trying to make a decent chapter was the reviews from my guest friend and JayBeeZZ, that and the increasing number of follows and favorites. I'll try increasing the word count in the future, but it'll be a while before the next one's up, probably nowhere near as long as this (I hope) but still a while. So, again, review, tell me if this was too dodgy to follow or not, I'll probably be working on adjustments on this when the weekend comes around, anyway... HK74, out.**


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